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M. 






WEST POINT 
COLORS 


BY 

ANNA B. WARNER 

'\ 


“ My only regret is 
for my country.” 


that I have but one life to give 
Nathan Hale. 



New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 


Copyright, 1903, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


( October ) 


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OCT U1 '1903 

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§£?LA88 


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New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago : 63 Washington Street 
Toronto : 27 Richmond Street, W. 
London : 2 1 Paternoster Square 

Edinburgh : 30 St. Mary Street 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. 

The Boy, 





PAGE 

9 

II. 

Means to an End, . 





14 

III. 

The Night Express, 





21 

IY. 

Ready for Duty, . 





26 

Y. 

The Flag, .... 





36 

VI. 

A Lonely Candidate, . 





54 

VII. 

In for It, . . 





60 

VIII. 

Rubs the Wrong Way, 





67 

IX. 

Camp Hard, .... 





73 

X. 

Band Concert, 





78 

XI. 

On Guard 





88 

XII. 

Off Guard 





92 

XIII. 

A Blue Christmas, 





97 

XIV. 

Camp Golightly, 





106 

XV. 

Signaling for Help, 





112 

XVI. 

Re-enforcements Ready, 





117 

XVII. 

Three Cheers and a Tiger, 





124 

XVIII. 

High Summer, 





129 

XIX. 

The Visitors’ Seats, 





138 

XX. 

Just TnEE and Me, 





142 

XXI. 

Me Only, .... 





150 

XXII. 

Girls, 





157 

XXIII. 

The Grim Gray Walls, 





167 

XXIV. 

Ninety-nine Days to June, . 





173 

XXV. 

Furlough, .... 





180 

XXVI. 

Cherry 





189 

XXVII. 

Off Limits, .... 





199 

XXVIII. 

On Exhibition, 





209 

XXIX. 

Skirmishing, .... 





218 

XXX. 

A Morning Talk, . 





226 


3 


4 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XXXI. 

The Summer Girl, 



PAGE 

. 238 

XXXII. 

Laying Foundations, . 



. 245 

XXXIII. 

Building Thereon, 



. 258 

XXXIV. 

Ambushes 



. 272 

XXXV. 

Of Course, 



. 278 

XXXVI. 

San Carlos, 



. 284 

XXXVII. 

Rushed into Camp, 



. 288 

XXXVIII. High Ground, .... 



. 293 

XXXIX. 

More Girls, 



. 299 

XL. 

On Fort Put, .... 



. 305 

XLI. 

Up Crownest, .... 



. 321 

XLII. 

Christmas Leave, 



. 332 

XLIII. 

The Hundredth Night, 



. 343 

XLIV. 

Pressing On, .... 



. 355 

XLV. 

Nothing Serious, 



. 360 

XLVI. 

Trying Letters, 



. 364 

XL VII. 

Mrs. Congressman, 



. 369 

XLVIII. 

The Guard-House in June, 



. 376 

XLIX. 

Flirtation and Other Places, 



. 388 

L. 

Fairyland, 



. 398 

LI. 

The Home Stretch, 



. 404 

LII. 

The Big Reception, 



. 414 

LIII. 

The First Post 



. 420 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


The Flag, 

PACINO PAGE 

. Title 

The Barracks in Winter, 

97 y 

The Color Guard, .... 

. 109 s 

Mounting Heavy Guns in Fort Clinton, 

. 170 , 

Cadet Room in Barracks, 

. 300 / 

Parade Rest in Camp, .... 

. 377 

Flirtation, 

. 392 / 

Cadet Boat and Crew, 

. 401 / 


5 



/ 


INTRODUCTION TO THIS TALE OF A 
POSSIBLE CADET 


Some of my friends in a certain cadet class beset me to 
write a West Point story ; promising me incidents at will, 
a plot, a name, and a tactical officer for “ the villain.” Per- 
haps it was because I declined this last sensational detail 
that they backed out of all the rest, and having given my 
boat a shove into deep water, left me to row and pilot 
as best I might. 

However, help came from other men, in other classes. 
I was cheered on in my work, and given story after 
story, with full leave to use them as I chose; and so it 
falls out that my book is quite true. 

Not that all the happenings ever came to any one cadet, 
or within the bounds of any four years’ course. But they 
have almost all, at some time, been part of somebody’s 
cadet life at West Point. With what men, or in what 
years, it does not matter : the last decade of the nineteenth 
century nearly enough covers the whole. 

I have tried hard to have the small technicalities quite 
correct. Yet as rules do vary now and then, even at West 
Point, everything may not always seem right, to this or that 
graduate. And, of course, I may have blundered here and 
there. 

Certain points in cadet life I was especially asked to 
handle; and if once or twice I have told only what might 
have been, even there I had the warrant of cadet opinion. 

As for the fancy names, it was so hard to find plain ones 
that were not down in some Army List or Visitors’ Book, 
that I made up a few, choosing rather to give caps which 

7 


8 


INTRODUCTION 


nobody would put on than others quite sure to be ap- 
propriated. Truly, I did not name Miss Dangleum: a 
young officer did that, and Cadet Devlin was also dubbed 
by one who knew. 

Since certain words of my story were written a few 
changes have come in. The cadet classes have pledged 
themselves to abolish hazing; the Hundredth Night (in 
its old wild glee) has been forbidden; the Cadet Howitzer 
is spiked. The shady nooks along “ Flirtation ” have 
been cleared up; Fort Clinton is a memory, the tents are 
brown, and Dade’s white shaft now stands in the gayest 
and sunniest of all the thoroughfares. But human nature 
survives, — and “ boodle ” — and the girls, so that my book 
is declared to be still “ absolutely true.” 

Sometimes when I watch that grey throng in the 
Chapel, I have a great wish that I could see the other 
little army with whom they are to join hands. So much 
depends on them. For womanhood sets the standard 
for the world of men. 

“ She’s like the keystone to an arch, 

That consummates all beauty ; 

She’s like the music to a march, 

That sheds a joy on duty.” 

Such she should be. 


A. B. W. 

Martlaer’s Rock, 


I 


THE BOY 

The lions, if they left not the forest, would capture no prey; and 
the arrow, if it quitted not the how, would not strike the mark. 

— Arabian Nights. 

T HE precise date of my story does not matter : the 
world strikes a much more even average than 
we are apt to think; and .still, as of old, “the 
thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that 
which is done, is that which shall be done.” 

Once upon a time, then, there was a boy whose name 
was Charlemagne Kindred. 

“Magnus” was the home version. I think his two 
young sisters were perhaps rather proud of the royal- 
republican title, and would by no means let it come down 
to “ Charley,” and so lose itself in the crowd. Once in a 
while, when a longer lecture than usual was called for, 
Mrs. Kindred would say Charlemagne: but I doubt if it 
had much effect, unless to give Magnus some slighting 
thoughts of the ancestor who had first borne his name. 

Mrs. Kindred was a widow of ten years’ standing; and 
she and Magnus, and the two young sisters, made up 
the family. There is nothing on earth sweeter than girls 
can be; and these two filled out the fair pattern, with few 
breaks or flaws. But no history or inheritance of even a 
name had been wasted on them, and they set out in life 

9 


10 T H E B O Y 

as plain Rose and Violet, named for their father’s favour- 
ite flowers. 

Magnus had not at all, however, the same reverence 
for his sisters that they felt for him, which was a pity; for 
really I think they deserved it better. 

But another drawback to the perfections of my hero, — 
a common one enough with heroes, and which after all 
proved him the real thing, — he had not five cents to his 
name. And failing this, the question came up very natu- 
rally, what else he could have “to his name,” to make 
that worth the carrying. 

“ Mamma, he’d make a beautiful minister ! ” said 
Rose, who, enshrined in the very rosiest corner of her 
heart, had a faint, far-away picture of her father in the 
pulpit. 

“ He would make a beautiful anything,” said the 
mother, her eyes shining at the mere thought of her boy. 
“But he cannot be a minister, Rose, at least not in his 
father’s church, without going to college.” 

“ And that takes money,” said Violet. “ Mamma, if I 
were Uncle Sam, I’d have free colleges. I can’t see why 
not, just as well as free schools.” 

“ I do not like to hear you say ‘ Uncle Sam,’ Violet. It 
is not respectful to the Government.” 

“ Magnus does.” 

Mrs. Kindred might have answered that the bump of rev- 
erence was not as yet developed in that young magnate’s 
head to any alarming degree, but no such disloyal words 
came out. She sat thinking. 

“ The Government has one free college, you know, girls,” 
she said ; “ at least, I suppose it may be called that. Two, 
in fact: the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the Mili- 
tary Academy at West Point. I wonder it never occurred 
to me before.” 

“ West Point ! ” exclaimed both the girls, open-eyed. 


T H E B O Y 11 

“ Then he’d be a soldier, and wear a uniform,” said 
Violet. 

“Yes, and then there would be a war, and he would 
get killed,” said Rose. 

“ No, he wouldn’t,” said Violet. “ Catch Magnus let- 
ting anybody shoot him. He’s a good deal too quick for 
that. Besides, people can get killed anywhere. Mission- 
aries do, sometimes.” 

“ I wonder I never thought of West Point,” Mrs. Kin- 
dred repeated. “Hush, girls; don’t say such things. 
There is no war now, and maybe there never will be 
again. Magnus would like it, too.” 

“He’d be splendid in uniform,” said Rose, “ he’s so 
tall.” 

“ Too tall,” said the mother with a sigh. “ Magnus 
grows altogether too fast. Perhaps West Point would 
be just the thing for him, and make him spread out a 
little. You know, girls, what big fellows some of those 
army men are, in papa’s book of officers ? ” 

“Yes,” said Violet doubtfully, “big enough. But 
then Magnus never could be as broad as he is long, so we 
needn’t worry.” 

A cheery whistle, strong and sweet and clear, pierced 
through the summer air outside ; and with one consent the 
three talkers hurried to the window to look out. It was a 
back window, commanding easily a woodshed, a small 
garden, and a barn. 

In the woodshed, hard at work upon a somewhat elabo- 
rate dog-house, stood the young future victim of mathe- 
matics and wave motion. Coat off, hat tossed down, hands 
busily chiselling out some bit of ornamentation; the head 
with its shock of brown curls bent low over his work. And 
very appropriately just then, for the thoughts that filled 
the air, Magnus was whistling “Yankee Doodle”: his 
limber young tones going with great force and discern- 


12 T H E B 0 Y 

ment into all the ups and downs of that delightful old 
melody. Do not mistake me and think the words iron- 
ical; I am extremely fond of “ Yankee Doodle/’ myself. 

“ How queer he should be whistling that ! ” said Rose. 
“ Oh, Magnus ! ” 

“ Hello!” 

“ Come up here. We were just talking about you.” 

“ Talk away.” 

“ But mother and all ! ” 

“Good I am down here, then,” said the boy, eyeing a 
bit of board along the edge to see if it was straight. 

“Why?” cried Violet. 

“You know she doesn’t like to praise me to my face,” 
said Magnus, carefully planing the aforesaid edge. 

“ Conceited boy ! ” said Rose. 

Well, I suppose he was that, just a little; but what can 
happen to average masculine nature, with three such bits 
of the feminine to stand round and gaze at its perfections ? 
Magnus brought his board to a nicety of straightness, 
tossed off the shavings, gave another toss to his brown 
hair — then looked up at the sweet cluster of faces in the 
window and laughed. 

“ All’s safe up there, so long as I stay down hear ” he 
said. 

The three were silent. 

“ He is such a beauty ! ” said Rose under her breath. 
“ He grows better and handsomer every day.” 

“ But we w r ant to talk to you ! ” said Violet. 

“ I can wait.” 

“ Suppose we cannot ? ” 

“Front door’s open,” said Magnus, falling to work 
with his hammer, and once more lapsing into the sweets 
of « Yankee Doodle.” 

“Mother, may we tell him?” said Rose. “May we 
ask him how he’d like it ? ” 


THE BOY 13 

“ Why, yes, dear ; that can do no harm,” said Mrs. Kin- 
dred. 

So the girls went down to the woodshed, perching them- 
selves on some hard places each side of their big brother. 

“Magnus, how would you like to be a soldier?” 

“ When there’s a war, you’ll see.” 

That was beginning at the wrong end; the two young 
faces grew suddenly grave. But, after all, there was no 
war then, and probably never would be, as their mother 
had said. 

“ But we mean now ” Rose went on. “ How would you 
like to go to West Point ? ” 

“What for?” 

“ Why, to learn to be a soldier ! ” said Violet impres- 
sively. 

Magnus laughed in high derision. 

“ Soldiers ! ” he said — “ Popinjays. Parrots and pop- 
injays. There was one of those fellows at Clear Spring 
last summer, and he had airs enough to fly a kite with a 
tail a mile long.” 

Again the two young sisters were silent. 

“But you would not, Magnus, when you came home,” 
said Violet. “ Oh, Rose ! just think of his coming home on 
vacation ! ” 

“And if all the rest are like that, you could be what 
mamma calls a ‘ beautiful example,’ ” said Rose. “ I heard 
Cherry speak of that ‘fellow,’ as you call him. She 
said his uniform was very interesting.” 

“ Cherry doesn’t care a copper for such stuff ! ” said 
Magnus hotly. 

“ I suppose she can admire a uniform,” said Rose. 

But to that Magnus made no reply. 


II 


MEANS TO AN END 

The nightingale flew away, and time flew also. 

— Hans Andersen. 

C HARLEMAGNE got his appointment. In a 
very commonplace way, after all, like most 
other boys; in spite of his long name and his 
longer list of qualifications. Some relative knew the 
Congressman of the district, had done business with him 
in the pre-official days, and in one of the intervals of 
home rest after Washington fatigues, young Kindred was 
taken over to the dignitary’s whereabouts, and presented 
as one who was eager to serve his country in another line. 
There was nothing heroic about the whole proceeding, and 
the man was not an ideal Congressman; but he answered 
the purpose. 

The interview would have made a fine subject for a 
picture. The boy, on his dignity every inch of him, 
making believe that he did not care a continental about 
the matter; but too unskilled in dissembling to prove the 
fact, and keep down the quick flashes of eye and flushes of 
cheek. The introducer, the childless uncle to whom his 
sister’s son was the one boy of all the world. Opposite 
them the old Congressman, with chair at an uncertain 
angle and hat ditto; tilting back in the cool shady porch, 
and listening with a scarce hid smile to the tale of Charle- 
magne’s attainments. 

“ Has he room in his head for anything more ? ” he de- 
manded, when Mr. Thorn paused. “ He’ll want a little, 
over there.” 


14 


MEANS TO AN END 15 

“ I am ready to learn all they teach, sir ! ” said young 
Magnus, firing up. “You think I don’t know anything 
now — and maybe I don’t.” 

“ Maybe — ” said the Congressman drily. “How about 
the outside of your head? You’ll get it rough and ready, 
at West Point.” 

“ I’ve got hands ! ” said Magnus with another flush. 

“ True,” said the Honourable Miles Ironwood. “ Well, 
take good care of them.” 

“And I have understood,” put in Mr. Thorn, “that 
hazing is quite stamped out at West Point.” 

Mr. Ironwood skilfully rocked his chair upon its two 
hind legs, a mocking smile upon his lips. 

“ Ever see a bit of woodland that was half trees and two- 
thirds rocks ? ” he said. 

“ I was brought up on just such a place,” said Mr. 
Thorn. 

“Ever fight a fire there?” 

“ Many a time.” 

“ H’m — I thought perhaps you hadn’t,” said the Con- 
gressman. “ Well, Mr. Thorn, this district is not rep- 
resented at West Point just now; last appointment re- 
signed some months ago, and I suppose it had better be 
filled. And this young man doesn’t look as if he would 
give the Tacs more trouble than common. And if they 
go for him, that is his lookout and not mine.” 

“ Who are the Tacs, sir ? ” inquired Magnus. 

“ Men who come round every morning to see if you have 
washed your face,” said Mr. Ironwood, without moving 
a muscle of his own. “ And every night, to tuck you up 
and bring away the light.” 

Magnus coloured indignantly; but a certain twinkle in 
Mr. Ironwood’s eye kept him silent. 

“ What do they teach there, chiefly ? ” said Mr. Thom. 
“ What had Magnus better learn before he goes ? ” 


16 


MEANS TO AN END 

“ Learn everything yon can, when you are going any- 
where” said Mr. Ironwood impressively. “ They teach rid- 
ing — a little — at West Point. And mathematics — some.” 

“ Charlemagne can ride,” said his uncle proudly. 

“ On his head ? ” 

“ Why no ! ” said Mr. Thorn. " Will that be required ? ” 

“I’ve seen ’em on their heads, in that riding hall,” 
said the Congressman with an easy change of position. 

“ They teach the classics, of course ? ” 

“ He’ll hear something about Achilles, like as not,” 
said Mr. Ironwood. “ Hector, too. Not so much of either 
as he will of Charlemagne.” 

Again the suggestive gleam of the eye acted upon the 
boy as both spur and check. 

“ And you have no general advice to give him, Mr. Iron- 
wood, as to what he had best do to prepare himself ? ” 

“ Prepare himself ? ” Mr. Ironwood brought his chair 
down on all-fours with considerable force. “ If that boy 
wants to get ready for West Point, let him do every blessed 
thing he dont want to do and not one that he does , 
between now and next June. Good-morning: I’ll attend 
to it.” 

“ He’s an old buzzard ! ” said Magnus as they walked 
away. 

“ A little sudden, sometimes,” said his mild uncle. 
“ But he’s a smart man — a very smart man. And now I 
think of it, he was there once himself, and didn’t get 
through. That’s what makes him so down on the place.” 

“ Must have been a very smart man if he couldn’t get 
through West Point,” Magnus said, with a boy’s easy con- 
tempt. 

But smart or not, Mr. Ironwood was as good as his 
word. And so in due course it was set forth in the Army 
and Navy J ournal , that among the candidates for the Mil- 
itary Academy the following June would be found one 


MEANS TO AN END 


17 


Charlemagne Kindred. And the local paper of Barren 
Heights (albeit not generally concerning itself with West 
Point) got hold of the item and copied it out in full. And 
so astonishing was it to see Charlemagne’s name in print 
that the family copy of said paper would have been quite 
worn out with much study and handling, if Mrs. Kindred 
had not rescued it, and laid it safe away among the 
family archives. 

As for Cherry, after first privately breaking her heart 
because Magnus was going away, she then plucked up 
courage and common sense, and became the proudest little 
maiden that could be found among all the patient readers 
of the Barren Heights View. 

It is safe to say that Magnus reversed Mr. Ironwood’s 
wise counsel at every point and every time. Having him- 
self been a failure at West Point, the Congressman’s 
opinion was counted a failure too; would have been, any- 
how, I fancy; and Charlemagne Kindred got ready for 
West Point by doing every possible thing he wanted to do, 
and letting the things he did not want to do, alone. Even 
when the rainy days of May went weeping by, and the fate- 
ful June was close at hand, what that boy did — and was al- 
lowed to do — would not bear telling. “ He is going away,” 
hushed every reproof ; and “ when I am gone,” forestalled 
criticism. Kefuse him? scold him? — the three gentle 
hearts at home were quite beyond all that. 

To be sure, he ought to have studied hard, the whole 
time; but then Magnus was so quick and bright it could 
not be really needful. And if Mrs. Kindred now and then 
sighed, and wondered what the end would be, if the be- 
ginning was so lawless, and what her husband the minister 
would have said to his only son becoming a soldier — the 
girls had the answer ready. 

“ Why mother, it is to defend the Country ! My father 
went to the war once, himself.” 


18 


MEANS TO AN END 

“ Yes, in time of need,” said Mrs. Kindred. 

“ But Magnus says that when there is no danger is the 
time to prepare,” said Bose. 

“Yes,” Mrs. Kindred said again with a smile and a 
sigh, pleased at such wisdom in her boy; although it was 
a principle of sound business which Magnus had never 
been known to act upon, in any one single case. 

But even he sobered down a little, as the last home day 
drew on. When the new trunk was packed, and Magnus 
had said good-bye to all the neighbourhood, and taken his 
last walk with Cherry; cheering up her forebodings in 
various efficacious ways best known to himself and to her; 
when there was nothing left but the good-night, and the 
early breakfast, and the parting — then, indeed, things 
began to look serious, and the boy too. 

He sat that evening, taking the clearest sort of mental 
photographs. He saw the grief that lay back of his 
mother’s brave words and tender smiles : saw it, as it were, 
on that other background of the older and deeper sorrow 
which never left her face. He noticed the white lines that 
marked the brown hair above her temples. He studied her 
hands: slender, white, but with that unmistakable char- 
acter of use and usefulness which some hands have. 

He looked at his sisters: fair, innocent slips of girls as 
you could find, East or West : their tears coming and going, 
their smiles playing hide and seek. Who ever had three 
such blessed bits of womankind entrusted to him? and who 
would take care of them when he, tall Charlemagne Kin- 
dred, should be far away ? Magnus registered in his heart 
some vows that night, which to his honour he kept. 

Then his eyes went down again to his mother’s hands. 
They were quietly folded in her lap; but as Magnus looked, 
he seemed to see them busy in a hundred different ways, and 
always for him. Steadying his baby steps, cooling his 
aching head; binding up scratches and cuts; sewing on 


MEANS TO AN END 


19 


buttons, knitting socks, mending gloves. Now laid ten- 
derly on his shoulder in some time of persuasion or en- 
treaty — and now held out, both of them, to receive the 
penitent. 

But here Magnus jumped up and fled away, out of the 
room, out of the house; and poured forth his agony of 
tears in the old orchard, under the quiet stars. 

At his age, however, such showers are brief, and often 
end in a highly exalted state of mind. Magnus came back 
to the house protector of his mother, defender of his sis- 
ters, and knight-errant for all womankind in general — 
especially Cherry. 

Cherry would have given what coppers she had in the 
world, and some silver to boot, to spend that last evening 
and morning at the Kindred house, and the girls had 
entreated her to stay, but she was a very self-contained 
little damsel and said no. “ Little” is not descriptive, 
however, for Cherry was growing up tall and straight as a 
plumed reed by the river side ; with a wealth of dark brown 
hair, and large serious eyes, and delicate brows that, when 
they laughed, went into curves as lovely and mischievous 
as the proverbial bow of Cupid. The whole of the demure 
face laughed then, with dimples here and dimples there. 

Brought up until six years old with a frail, invalid 
mother, and since then by a student father, the child had 
early learned to keep herself to herself with severe decision. 
And keep herself hid according to her own ideas, Cherry 
feared she could not, if she was at hand to see Magnus 
Kindred go. Besides — Magnus himself had not asked her ! 

“But why will you not stay, Cherry?” the girls per- 
sisted. 

“It does not matter why, you know, so long as I am 
going,” said wise Cherry, and so she put on her sun- 
bonnet, and went back with steady steps toward her own 
gate, so soon as tea was over. To be sure, Magnus did see 


20 


MEANS TO AN END 


her and come bounding after; and, to be sure, she found 
out then that she was not really in such haste as she had 
thought : but still Magnus would never have got the sort 
of farewell he did, if he had not been saucy and taken it. 
Though, alas ! I am afraid his after-memory of the parting 
was for a time less tender and true than hers. 

So there were only the three home faces about the boy 
that last morning, and only the three sore hearts to plan 
and prepare his breakfast and every other possible sort of 
ministration. And magnate as he was, Charlemagne found 
those three as much as he could bear. 


Ill 


THE NIGHT EXPRESS 

Just in the grey of the dawn, as the mists uprose from the meadow, 
There was a stir and a sound in the slumbering village of Plymouth ; 
Clanging and clicking of arms, and the order imperative, “For- 
ward ! ” —Longfellow. 

I DO not see why the march of improvement should 
tread down sentiment and tread out romance; but 
such seems to he the fact. Beauty and feeling, like 
very birds of the wildwood, take wing and flee at the shriek 
of the steam-whistle. Your public conveyance is no longer 
a kindly, easy-going personality, the “ Highflyer ” or the 
“ Dashaway” mail-coach; it is only the 6.30 train. You 
could turn and wave a good-bye, in the olden time ; gazing 
back at the dear home outlines until, in the pathetic words 
of David Copperfield, “ the sky was empty.” But now, even 
if the railway does not graze your front dooryard, and you 
must walk or drive to the station, yet you hardly dare 
glance round you as you go, lest you should miss the train. 
For that distant dark line with its trail of silver smoke, 
which comes snaking along across the country, makes no 
account of you as an individual, and is equally ready to 
run you down or to pick you up ; and will sooner do either 
than wait. 

Magnus was to report at West Point on a certain speci- 
fied day, and his setting out had been timed accordingly: 
and now the terror of being late, and so belated, was 
upon thorn all. They hurried him off after the five-o’clock 
breakfast; kissing him, crying over him indeed, but push- 
ing him out of the house. And Mrs. Kindred would not 
21 


22 THE NIGHT EXPRESS 

go with him to the station nor let the girls ; Magnus could 
walk so much faster alone, or even run, if need be ; and they 
might make him loiter. 

So the boy went forth alone; turning round at the last 
corner, and waving his hat with an air of triumph which 
was very make-believe indeed. His heart was as heavy as 
lead, and he called himself the greatest ninny in existence ; 
leaving such a home, and such a mother, and three such 
girls. For in that last look back Magnus had not failed 
to see the curling smoke that floated away from the chim- 
ney of Cherry’s house, high up upon the hill. What a silly 
he was, sure enough. Why, the mere old lilac bushes in 
the dooryard were better than all West Point. Neverthe- 
less, he went on — 

“ For men must work and women must weep.” 

Happily for the women, their life is generally more real 
and prosaic than the poet thought; and they also have to 
work on, through their tears. 

The train came rushing up on time; Magnus swung 
himself in; and with a derisive snort the locomotive tore 
him away from home, and mother, and the three girls. 

As a rule, the inmates of a railway ear are extremely 
unsympathetic to look at. What face or figure do you ever 
see there to which you would like to appeal in case of 
need? When the need comes, indeed, there is generally 
someone to take it up, a comforting thought, worth re- 
membering; but for the most part people hold themselves 
visibly aloof, except in the way of growling over open 
windows, or of striving for seats. 

Charlemagne Kindred looked up and down the car, 
scanning briefly the faces as he took his seat ; and the width 
of the world, and its exceeding low temperature, settled 
down upon his heart as a new fact. 

The first day and the first night went by wearily enough. 


23 


THE NIGHT EXPRESS 

Magnus had decided to save money by not taking a sleeper; 
assuring his anxious mother and sisters that he could sleep 
anyhow and anywhere. And so he could, at home, as they 
well knew. But it seemed to him in that long first night, 
as if the boards of their barn floor at home were softer (as 
they were certainly far sweeter) than all the cushions of 
the night express. What fumes the men brought in from 
the smoking car ! What gruff voices and hollow laughs and 
idle words were all about him. Disgust, fatigue, and 
strangeness took the boy in their hard hands, until, as the 
second night drew on, Magnus did not know himself. He 
wondered what was the matter with him: wondered if he 
was going to be ill : and never guessed for a while that he 
was growing deathly, deadly homesick. 

The knowledge came. J ust at nightfall the train slowed 
up at a little country station, and a woman and child got 
out. They had been sitting far behind Magnus, and, as the 
child never cried, she had called forth no special notice; 
though once or twice when the rush and roar ceased for a 
moment, Magnus had caught the sweet canary-bird notes 
of the little voice. Now, she passed him in her mother’s 
arms; and in the moment’s pause at the door, the little 
creature turned and looked down the dingy car, where 
what light there was seemed just to show up the darkness. 
The sweet, serious eyes gazed along the lines of her late 
fellow-passengers — then as the way opened, and the mother 
moved on, the child waved her little innocent hand in fare- 
well greeting to that small, unknown world. 

“ Dood-night, folks ! ” she said — and was gone. 

I can fancy that many hearts stirred at the sound; but 
poor Magnus quite gave way. Oh, for one word from the 
dear home voices, one touch of the dear home hands. He 
remembered Violet, when she was no bigger than that little 
thing, nestled in her mother’s arms just so. What was he 
doing here, away from them all? What was West Point 


24 THE NIGHT EXPRESS 

to him? If indeed he ever got there. Magnus felt now 
as if he should die by the way. 

He was alone in the seat just then; and the boy pulled 
his hat down over his eyes, leaned head and arms against 
the dingy red cushion, and let the tears come. The train 
ran on, past several other small stations; then drew up 
before a ten-minutes-for-refreshment place, where to many 
people the minutes and the refreshment would be equally 
brief and unsatisfactory. Yet the glow and light and 
counter full of viands looked tempting enough to a weary 
passenger ; and many got out. Magnus never stirred. He 
was not hungry, naturally enough; and besides had some 
of the home sandwiches and cookies still in his bag. But 
touch them — look at them even — in his present mood, he 
could not. 

The car was almost empty: and in the relief of the 
sudden stillness and space, Magnus got up and walked to 
and fro between the open doors. It was a comfort to do 
anything, and the ten minutes were far too short for him 
as for the rest. He dropped into his seat again, as the 
passengers came hurrying back ; watching them with 
languid interest, and wondering which one would come 
and sit by him. Last night he had had a man so redolent 
of unpleasant things that only a very tired boy could have 
managed to sleep at all. Last night, and part of to-day. A 
somewhat different set were coming in now; new faces 
taking the place of others left behind at the station. 

Magnus eyed them one by one, desiring none of them 
in his seat, and only hoping they would leave it and him 
alone, until just as the train began to pull out of the 
station. There came in then a man of a different type of 
citizenship. Of good height and sturdy build ; close shaven, 
close cropped : a dress and outfit scrupulously neat and in 
order, but evidently bought at the shop of Comfort and 
Use, and not from that tailor to all the crowned heads. 


25 


THE NIGHT EXPRESS 

High Style. Over the whole man was that look of absolute 
cleanness — mental, moral, and physical — which a smooth 
face always sets off to the best advantage. Step firm and 
businesslike, eyes quick and kind. A man “ at leisure from 
himself,” for all the work his Master might set before him. 
(Was there, perhaps, work here? 

The car had thinned out a good deal by this time ; people 
dropping off at one and another station, getting to their 
homes as the night drew on, and there were many vacant 
seats : here two together, and there one by somebody else. 
Mr. Wayne paused a moment, looking down the car, and 
from under his straw hat Magnus watched him, with a 
vague longing that he would come and sit by him . 

That is a wonderfully lovely glimpse of unseen things, 
in one of the chapters of the book of Daniel, where one 
angel says to another, “ Run, speak to that young man.” 
I suppose Mr. Wayne was conscious of no audible monition; 
but after that moment’s pause, he stepped down the car, 
past one and another tempting “ whole” seat, and took 
his place by young Charlemagne Kindred. 


IV 


READY FOR DUTY 

The man that wants me is the man I want. 

—Dr. Edward Payson. 

T HIS seat is not engaged? You are not expecting 
a companion?” the stranger said as he sat 
down. 

“No, sir, I have nobody to expect,” said Magnus, his 
tone making the answer broader than the question. 

“ Nobody to expect ? ” Mr. Wayne repeated the words, 
then went on softly to himself, yet just so that Magnus 
caught the sound, “ * My soul, wait thou upon God, for 
my expectation is from him.’ 

“Where does this train stop for supper?” he said 
abruptly, after a minute or two. 

“ They had supper at Beaver J unction.” 

“ So, so ! Just where I got in. Have you had yours? ” 
“No, sir. I didn’t want any.” 

“ Well, you and I wear our family likeness with a differ- 
ence,” said Mr. Wayne. “ I have had no supper either, but 
I want it. They used to stop at Edenton. Been a change, 
I suppose, since the extension of the road.” 

He rose up and went to the further end of the car, 
where the conductor was taking a minute’s rest; coming 
back with the word that another chance for refreshments 
would be at Centerville Junction, where they had to wait 
for the train from Combination. 

“ Then you and I will go and sup together,” he $aid. 

“ I don’t want any supper,” the boy repeated. 

26 

■ 




READY FOR DUTY 27 

“ What’s the matter? You’re not sick?” and the keen 
eyes made a closer survey. 

“ No, indeed, sir.” 

“ The home station is close at hand, then, is it ? ” 

“ No, sir. It will not be near me for two years,” said 
Magnus, trying to speak with the proper pride of a young 
man off on his travels, and far from home, but the boyish 
voice betraying itself and him. 

“ Two years ! ” Mr. Wayne repeated ; adding with a breath 
that was almost a groan, “ Two years out of sight of home ! 
You are going to West Point?” he said the next minute 
in his quick way. 

“Yes, sir. But how did you know?” said the boy, 
rousing up in his surprise. 

“ Yankees aren’t worth a red cent if they can’t guess,” 
said Mr. Wayne, smiling. “ Well, that settles the question 
of supper. If you get to West Point in a die-away condi- 
tion, they’ll not take you in; and you will see the home 
station quicker than you care about, maybe. The first 
thing they’ll tell you at West Point will be to ‘ brace up,’ 
so you’d better do a little at it before you get there.” 

If Magnus was half ready to resent the words he could 
not, for the merry glance that went with them. 

“ Were you ever at West Point, sir ? ” 

“ Often.” 

“ Well, what sort of a place is it ? ” said Magnus, sitting 
straight up in his interest. 

“ One of the very loveliest places on this fair earth,” 
said Mr. Wayne. “ With hills and woods and river that 
you will lose your heart to, and never get it back.” 

“ Nice people, too ? ” questioned Magnus. 

“ All sorts of people. As in every other bit of the world. 
All sorte.” 

“ There is only one sort at home,” said Magnus 
proudly. 


28 READY FOR DUTY 

“ Ah, true ! But home is the only exception. And so, 

“ Be it ever so homely, 

There is no place like home. 

But even in the home neighbourhood, I think, you can 
remember varieties ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed,” said Magnus, smiling. “ Chaff Pointer 
said it was waste time for me to go to West Point, for he 
knew I’d never get through.” 

“ Well, I’d prove that man a false prophet, if he does 
belong near home,” said Mr. Wayne. “ How did ‘ Chaff ’ 
get his name ? ” 

"All the rest of the family are sound and good for 
something, and so everybody calls him ‘ Chaff,’ ” said 
Magnus. 

Mr. Wayne laughed heartily. “ All sorts there, too,” he 
said. "But here is our ten-minute station. Come along. 
I invite you to be my guest, and when you are invited out 
to supper, you must go when you don’t want to go, and eat 
when you are not hungry.” 

And Magnus laughed and followed. But to hurry into 
that brilliantly lighted room after a cheerful companion, 
and to eat all sorts of queer railway providings at railway 
speed, was a very different thing from munching his dry 
sandwich alone in the dusky car, and all the time seeing 
nothing but the dear fingers that put it up. Appetite came 
back, and spirits, with somewhat of the joyous sense of 
enterprise and novelty; confidence and liking for his new 
friend sprang up into life-size proportions, and it did not 
take long to tell over the whole little home story. It was 
such a comfort to speak to somebody. 

And Mr. Wayne listened with deepest interest. He had 
meant to take a sleeper as soon as they left the Junction, 
but changed his purpose, and sat by the boy through all the 
hours of the night. Ready for words when Magnus roused 


29 


READY FOR DUTY 

up to speak them; and when the young eyes closed, and 
the young head sought intervals of rest against the hard, 
swaying back of the seat, then studying the boy with a face 
from which the laugh had vanished, and a grave, almost 
solemn, look came up to take its place. 

“ Good blood,” so he muttered to himself, as he noted the 
clear skin and pure colour, “ and well brought up ” — for 
unmistakable lines of truth and intelligence marked the 
face. “ Warm-hearted — almost — as a woman, and wilful 
enough for two ! What will he do at West Point ? and what 
will West Point do to him ? ” 

The grave eyes were shielded, and from the kindly heart 
went up that longing petition of the Lord himself : 

“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of 
the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the 
evil.” 

So the night wore on, with alternate snatches of talk 
and sleep, until the early dawn of the June day came 
swiftly up over the outside world. 

“ To-night I shall be at West Point,” said Magnus, as 
the two new-made friends went back to their car after 
breakfast. 

“ Ordered to report to-day ? ” 

“ No, sir, not until Friday.” 

“ Where will you stay to-night ? ” 

“ Oh, I cannot tell,” said Magnus. “ I don’t know any- 
body nor anything at West Point. Oh, I suppose I’ll find 
some place ! ” 

“ ‘ Some place ’ is not always a good place. You had 
better stay in town with me to-night, and take an early 
morning train up river.” 

“ Do you live in town, sir ? ” 

“ Not I ! But I shall be there to-night.” 

Hotels and hotel bills were as yet unknown things to 
Magnus Kindred, and he entered into this plan with great 


30 


READY FOR DUTY 

alacrity; nor ever guessed, till he went home on furlough 
and put up at the same hotel, how large a part of his fare 
that night was paid by Mr. Wayne himself. 

It was very late when the train ran into the big city, at 
least according to the standard at Barren Heights, but 
those weird old hands on the church steeples of New York 
count nothing “ late ” until it is two o’clock in the morn- 
ing, and so in truth early once more. 

Magnus felt quite sure that the rumble and roar would 
not let him sleep a wink, but after he had once closed his 
eyes, they never opened again until broad daylight. 

The two friends roomed together. A big room, it seemed 
to Magnus, the two sides of which had each quite a retired 
privacy of its own. Mr. Wayne, writing letters under the 
gaslight, noted the boy’s neat, orderly ways in all his prep- 
arations for bed. Magnus had sat reading his own private 
chapter first, not with haste, but with interest, and then 
they had had prayers together. Now, the boy knelt quietly 
by his own special bed, his face upon his arms, and once 
or twice there came a sound that brought the quick drops 
to Mr. Wayne’s own eyes. But then Magnus called out his 
“ Good-night, sir ! ” in a cheerful, resolved tone, which was 
all that could be wished. 

In the morning the two walked up to the Grand Central 
together. There their ways parted, Mr. Wayne going off on 
the New Haven road, while Magnus checked his trunk for 
Garrisons and West Point. 

“ Magnus, what is going to be your dependence at West 
Point ? ” said Mr. Wayne, as they stepped along. 

“ Hard work, sir.” 

“ Good,” said Mr. Wayne. “ And what for your hard 
work ? How do you expect to keep yourself at it ? ” 

“ My own will, sir.” 

“ Good again,” said his friend. “ And how is that will 
to be kept to its duty ? ” 


READYFORDUTY 31 

“ Mother says I’m self-willed enough for anything,” said 
Magnus. 

“ Truly. But self-will and will-power are very different 
forces, and often come in sharp collision. Misguided 
steam is quite likely to blow up the whole concern.” 

“ Well, sir, what can I do with my will but use it?” 
said the boy with some quickness. 

“ You can abuse it quite easily,” said Mr. Wayne. “ Turn 
it on the wrong things, fire it up in the wrong place. A 
soldier needs to have the ‘ governor’ of his own private 
engine in excellent working order.” 

“ Fm not a soldier yet,” said Magnus, laughing, “ and 
shall not be for four years.” 

“ You will be one, to all intents, as soon as you are 
admitted at West Point. From that moment you are 
counted in the service of the United States, and under her 
orders. Bound to do her bidding, whether you like it or 
not, whether you understand it or not.” 

“ Even if someone has blundered ? ” said Magnus with 
a half laugh. 

“ Even if someone has blundered. With that question 
you have nothing to do. Men will blunder now and then, 
at West Point as elsewhere, but that is no concern of yours. 
Uncle Sam’s orders are to be obeyed, and neither the 
quality nor the quantity of them affects the thing in the 
least.” 

“ That sounds hard,” said Magnus. 

“ It is hard.” 

“And rather impossible to carry out, I should say,” 
remarked Magnus with a boy’s air of competent criti- 
cism. 

“ Nothing is impossible which ought to be done,” said 
Mr. Wayne. “If the authorities at West Point did not 
disapprove of decorations, I would have that written up 
over your door in gilt letters.” 


32 


READY FOR DUTY 

“ Disapprove ! ” Magnus repeated. 

“ Disapprove. A soldier’s life has small time and place 
but for the absolute needs-be.” 

“Did you ever go through West Point, sir?” said 
Magnus with a wondering look at his new-found friend. 

“No indeed. But I have been through Chattanooga, 
and Fair Oaks, and a few other places, and so I know what 
all this play-soldiering may come to.” 

Magnus stopped short and gazed at him. 

“Chattanooga! Fair Oaks! You have been there?” 
he said. 

“ Why, yes,” said Mr. Wayne, pulling him round again, 
“and I’m glad I am not there how. Come on; we must 
catch our train. Never mind all that to-day. So you 
thought you would be your own master till you got shoul- 
der-straps, hey? Not a bit of it. You belong to Uncle 
Sam just as much in grey as you ever will in blue.” 

“ Body and soul ! ” said Magnus with a rather un- 
mirthful laugh. 

“Not soul,” said Mr. Wayne. “The only power that 
traffics in souls is the devil, and his vice-gerent the World. 
But about everything else, from the minute you enter West 
Point, you are under orders — sworn in to obey. How are 
you going to bring yourself up to that point? ” 

“ Why, I have always been taught to obey, at home,” said 
Magnus. 

“ Yes, and when you didn’t do it, it was always, ‘ Oh, 
Magnus must have forgotten. He never means to dis- 
obey.’ ” 

“ How do you know, sir ? ” said the boy, laughing and 
colouring, too. 

“ I have had a mother,” said Mr. Wayne. “ And if there 
is anything on this earth at the antipodes of the being 
that owns that blessed name, it is a West Point tactical 
officer.” 


33 


READY FOR DUTY 

“ Who is he ? ” said Magnus. 

“ The tactical officer ? Oh, he is one of a small force in 
blue, specially detailed to look after the cadets in grey.” 

“ They must be the ones that our Congressman says 
come round to see if you’ve washed your face,” said Mag- 
nus. “ They’d better not try that on me ! ” 

Mr. Wayne laughed a little. 

“ Well, I’d be ready for them,” he said. “ Fighting for 
rights that you haven’t got does not pay at West Point.” 

“ Why, what sort of a queer place is it ? ” said young 
Charlemagne with growing distaste. 

“ It is a place where you are under orders,” said Mr. 
Wayne, “ and that often makes wild work with one’s own 
private notions. You swear to obey orders when you go in, 
and you are under them till you come out. From the time 
you get up till the time you go to bed, — and after.” 

“ Not while I am asleep, I suppose,” said the boy with 
an expressive lift of the brows. 

“ Yes you are. If you fail to hear the reveille gun, your 
being asleep will not excuse you. It is your business to 
wake up. Nobody will come round and tap softly at your 
door and say, ‘ Now, Magnus, dear, if you are not too tired, 
I think you had better get up.’ ” 

It was so exactly what his mother had said but four 
days ago that the boy’s eyes flushed, and his throat 
choked up. 

“ What will they do to me ? ” he said, making a brave 
fight for his self-control, “ if I do not hear the gun ? ” 

“ Oh, you will figure in the report as a ‘ late,’ or an 
{ absent,’ with corresponding small penalties, that is all. 
Nothing very terrible if it comes but once, but piling up 
trouble if it comes often.” 

“They might call a fellow,” said Magnus, who never 
liked to do that kind office for himself. 

“ Armies are seldom large enough for each man to have 


34 READY FOR DUTY 

another man detailed to look after him/’ said Mr. Wayne 
drily. 

Magnus made no answer. He paced up and down the 
long station house by his friend’s side, swinging his little 
handbag with an air that was not all of enjoyment. 

“ It’s a hard place, then, isn’t it ? ” 

“ There are no easy places in this world, so far as I 
know,” answered Mr. Wayne. “ Hot for men who wish to 
get on. There are a few where you can stand still. West 
Point is not one of those. Back or forward you must go ? 
there. But there is no hardest place on earth that ‘ work 
and pray ’ will not carry a man gloriously through.” 

“ Well, mother has taught me the one, and I guess I’ll 
soon pick up the other,” said Magnus. “ I’m not afraid of 
work, if I am rather lazy.” 

“ Magnus,” said his friend suddenly, “ when you get 
to West Point I want you to make friends with the 
flag.” 

“ All right,” said the boy, laughing. “ Do they fly the 
flag all the time ? That is glorious ! ” 

"They fly it all the time, in all weathers; from the 
small storm flag in a gale, to the bunting thirty-six feet 
long, on a holiday. What would you think, if they hauled 
the flag down every time someone came by who did not 
like it?” 

“ I should say, c Shoot the man who touched the hal- 
yards ’ ! ” said Magnus. 

“ Suppose the passerby was from a powerful nation that 
we feared to offend?” 

“ There is no such nation ! ” said the boy, drawing him- 
self up. 

“ But Young America can suppose, for the argument’s 
sake,” said Mr. Wayne, smiling. 

" Hard thing to do, sir,” laughed Magnus. “ However, 
I’ll suppose, as you say. And I say, the man would come 


READY FOR DUTY 35 

down, a long sight ahead of the Stars and Stripes. I’d 
risk offending anybody, for the flag.” 

Mr. Wayne paused and faced him. 

“ Magnus,” he said, “ I have just three words for you at 
West Point. Work, pray, and keep your colours flying! 
Good-bye; the doors are open.” 

So they parted, and soon the cry was, “ All aboard ! ” 
and the train moved slowly out of the Grand Central. 


V 


THE FLAG 

What is that which the breeze o’er the towering steep, 

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ? 

Now it catches the gleam 
Of the morning’s first beam ; 

In full glory reflected now shines on the stream. 

—Francis Key. 

I T is not a particularly interesting bit of road at first, 
as you leave the great city, going north. The tunnel, 
the gleams and glooms in the long passage under 
ever-arching streets; and whatever the Harlem end of New 
York may have been, it is not delightsome to look upon 
now. 

But the way to the turn is not long ; and once round that 
corner, and racing along the river side, there is enough to 
see, well worth the seeing. And it was all new to Magnus. 
The wonderful rush of the mighty river, rolling its blue 
waves in endless curls and undulations; the stately Pali- 
sades, with their drapings of June green; the white-winged 
craft on the water, and the white-winged gulls in the air ; 
all made the boy’s heart leap. Here went a steamer, 
ploughing her crested furrows; now and then the train 
stopped for breath at some station with a strange name. 
It was all a wonderful new world. 

With his face close to the window Magnus looked eagerly 
out; sending his gaze as far up the river as the headlands 
and bends would let him: and at last in the distance be- 
yond the narrowing waters of Haverstraw Bay, and above 
the nearer hillsides, rose lovely mountain-heads. Not 

36 


THE FLAG 37 

towering and stupendous, such as he might have seen many 
a time in the Western States, but soft, rounded, exquisite; 
just high enough, in fact, to claim the dignified name of 
mountains, as distinguished from mere hills. What they 
were, and where they belonged, Magnus could not tell. 
They rose up, and stretched out, and locked in, in an im- 
passable sort of way ; as if they might be miles off from the 
river. He did not know whether West Point was near 
them. And yet, by his time-table, there was but one 
station more before he must leave the train. 

Now the engine rushed inland for a bit, losing sight of 
the river, and Magnus studied the time-table again, as- 
suring himself for the twentieth time of the precise hour 
and minute when he was expected to reach Garrisons. 
Then as the train drew up at Peekskill, he gazed out at 
that dingy combination which gathers round a railway sta- 
tion. The engine got its quantum of water, darted on, 
and then — ah, what could be fairer! Magnus almost 
shouted with delight as they swept around the curve, with 
the full south view for a moment, past Anthony’s Nose, 
and with the Dunderberg across the stream. 

“ What are these mountains called ? ” he asked of a 
Peekskill passenger who had taken the seat beside him. 

“ Highlands — Hudson Highlands,” said the man. “ You 
don’t belong round here, likely ? ” 

“ I never was here before.” 

“ You’ve come to the right place, then. Aint purtier 
mountings nowhere. Such a lot o’ happenings, too. Now, 
right here ” — as the train rushed through a deep rock cut, 
— “ just about here, was where Benedict Arnold sneaked 
off to find the Vulture. And earth nor water didn’t nary 
one on ’em open and swaller him up.” 

“ Then this is Teller’s Point ! ” cried Magnus. 

“ Teller’s Point it is. And up yonder, to your right, is 
where the scamp was livin’, and gettin’ his breakfast that 


38 


THE FLAG 


morning when the Father of his country come, and all 
but cotched him. Tell you, these old hills has seen things ! 
But now look this way a bit. See that crick over there, 
and the mill? Fort Montgomery’s one side, to the north, 
and t’other side o’ the crick is Fort Clinton; and down 
there, atween ’em, is where they fit the battle and killed 
my great grandfather. They do say, the Continentals was 
that mad they pitched all the Hessians into the crick. 
Tell you what, young man, it’s fine to have one o’ the family 
die in the service. I aint partic’lar about its bein’ me, 
you understand, but some one on ’em.” 

“But you’d be ready to have it you?” said Magnus, 
eyeing his new acquaintance. 

“Likely I would, if the tug came. Life’s life, howso- 
ever, when there aint no special call to get along without 
it. They’re tryin’ to learn them boys at West Point how 
to fight ; but la ! this here sham work don’t go for nothin’. 
Live in peace till the time comes, say I.” 

“ But you want to be ready for the time,” said Magnus. 

“Ready?” the man repeated. “Take your pitchfork 
and go. That’s ready enough for me. It did average well, 
in ’76.” 

“ Garri-sons ! ” sang out the brakeman, flinging back 
the door. “ Garrisons ! Ferry to West Point.” 

And in another minute Magnus was out on the platform, 
and heard the little ferryboat ringing her bell. He looked 
eagerly about him, found the right official to take his check, 
and following that bell, marched down to the Highlander , 
and went on board. 

A down train was nearly due, so there were a few min- 
utes to wait; and Magnus pushed straight on to the little 
forward deck, and then forgot everything in what he saw. 

It was unearthly fair, this bit of the world that lay be- 
fore him. The lovely green further shore, decked from 
river side to sky edge in the rich growth and colouring of 


THE FLAG 


39 


early summer ; the hills but hardly yet in their full depth 
of green, so that the dark cedars and hemlocks stood out 
markedly among the tender hues of oaks, hickories, chest- 
nuts, and maples. From the midst of the trees on the 
table-land rose up chimneys, pointed roofs, round roofs, and 
domes, which as yet meant nothing to Charlemagne Kin- 
dred. The river rolled placidly by, stirred into wavelets 
by the fresh, sweet breeze ; close at hand he could hear the 
soft lapping of the water against the sides of the boat. All 
sweet, all strange; and between the two, Magnus very 
nearly let his head go down. 

But now came the thunder of the down train; the in- 
viting ding-dong of the ferryboat made itself once more 
heard, a little throng of passengers came hurrying on board, 
and then they were off. Crossing the Bubicon, Magnus felt, 
if he did not say. 

For a few moments still he stood quite alone on the for- 
ward deck. How fast the little steamer parted the blue 
waters that lay between him and his new life! Hilltops 
to the north, hilltops to the south, Anthony’s Nose cutting 
the river off on the one hand, Martlaer’s Bock — the old 
“East Point” of the maps — closing it in on the other. 
Before him, West Point, “ Tacs,” and orders ; behind him, 
the road by which he had come from home. 

Then the swing-door slammed, and a bevy of girls came 
rushing out to the front of the boat. Magnus turned to 
look at them, then instinctively took a stand further back, 
where he could gaze less visibly. 

Certainly he had seen girls enough to know the genus, 
but these were a new species. Such hats, such heels, such 
giggles, such bewildering dresses. Such knots of riband, 
such spots of velvet, such piles of artificial flowers, such 
very pretty faces. Not handsome, like Cherry, Magnus 
said indignantly, calling himself to order ; and then began 
to wonder how Cherry would look dressed so ♦ 


40 


THE FLAG 


And even as the thought came, he heard one whisper to 
the other, “ A candidate.” 

And Magnus felt unreasonably angry. What business 
had they to pick him out? And how was he a marked 
man, anyway? But their notice of' him was short. 

“ Look at Jenny ! ” giggled one, half under her breath, 
pointing to a girl who leaned on the railing, and never 
took her eyes from the West Point shore. “He isn’t on 
the watch, sweet child: it’s one o’clock, and they’re all in 
the Mess Hall. Don’t send such wistful looks on ahead, 
or they’ll mount the hill and spoil his digestion.” And 
she half whistled, half sang : 

“ Come fill up your glasses, and don’t stand back ; 

Vive la compagnie ! 

And drink to the health of our Captain Jack 

You don’t call him plain ‘ Jack ’ yet, do you, dear ? ” 

“If you could talk a little sense ! ” murmured the girl at 
the railing. “ I shall never call him ‘ plain ’ anything.” 

The girls choked with laughter, which half rippled out, 
and half was smothered. Then the talk went on, in the 
same undertones; not as if it was meant to be heard, and 
yet which Magnus could not help hearing. 

“ She’s such a Paul Pry ! Said to me the other day 
when we were out walking, c But you are not in love with 
any one of the class? ’ I said, ‘ No; I’m in love with the 
whole class.’ Oh, dear ! it will be too dreadful when they 
all go ! ” 

“ There are always candidates,” whispered another, with 
a glance towards Magnus, and then the boat touched her 
landing, and the girls hurried on shore. 

Magnus did not hurry. He had no quarters to spend on 
omnibus fare, and no mind at all to be wedged in among 
those lively ladies. He picked up his bag and walked 
after the stage as it slowly climbed the hill. A few swift 
strides would have easily taken him beyond it. But he 


THEFLAG 41 

lingered and loitered, sat down on the tall stone curbing of 
the road, and tried to find out why he felt so uncomfortable. 
What if he was a “ candidate ” ? There was Cherry, and 
the other two girls at home, on tiptoe over that very fact. 
Why should West Point feel so differently? He had come 
to learn to serve and to defend his country; to grace her 
ranks, wherever he might be. 

Magnus looked after his stageful of enemies, and seeing 
that they had turned down towards the south, he quick- 
ened his steps, and soon reached the top of the hill. There 
paused again, partly for strangeness, and partly for wonder. 
It was all so beautiful, so new. 

The grass, close shaven and vividly green, covered the 
ground on every side; up the slopes, and down in the hol- 
lows ; with only the cavalry plain lying brown and bare in 
the sunshine. Buildings, with hardly two alike, were 
dropped down for the most part in a long, curving line, 
the end of which he could not see. No people, anywhere, 
for it was dinner time or lunch time all over the Post; 
only as Magnus crossed the road to get a nearer view of 
the buildings, he came upon a very distinguished person- 
age with a gun on his shoulder, pacing aimlessly up and 
down the sidewalk. His uniform was blue, his “ deport- 
ment ” fierce. “ He must be an officer,” thought the boy 
to himself, “ and this some special important point he must 
watch.” 

Magnus found a seat under a friendly tree, and studied 
him. That slow, ceaseless, back-and-forth march, fasci- 
nated the quicksilver youngster. Orioles whistled over his 
head, sparrows sang, catbirds cried out in fear or shouted 
for joy. Further off was the whistle and roar of trains, 
and the bell of the ferryboat. In every pause the breeze 
rustled softly by, and the river plashed against the shore. 
He had never seen anything so lovely in all his life. But 
now, where were all those voices? — a mild roar of talk. 


42 THEFLAG 

Plainly, in that small grey stone castle just over the 
way. 

He strolled on again, passed the old Academic, and came 
out upon the plain. And then for a while he forgot every- 
thing but what his eyes took in. 

The smooth greensward, irregularly framed in with trees, 
and having here and there a slight undulation which only 
heightened its beauty, lay shimmering in the summer sun. 
On one side, behind the trees, the row of houses went its 
winding way; on the other, the trees drew together rather 
thinly in a little wood; but Magnus just then gave no heed 
to either. His eyes followed the green right on to a sort 
of jumping-off place, where the ground dropped suddenly 
all along the line. There too was a closer-set clump of 
trees ; and from among them, white and slim, rose the tall 
flagstaff, bearing aloft the beautiful banner of the Stars 
and Stripes. 

There was not much wind, and the great flag hung in 
those halfway curves which are more picturesque than the 
full expansion. Softly twisting, turning, its mighty folds ; 
the red, white, and blue seeming ever in playful strife for 
the upper hand, which should show most and which give 
way. 

Magnus looked at it, and then instantly bared his head. 
He had never seen so large a flag, nor ever one that floated 
with such clear assumption of its rights ; such careless, easy 
grace in claiming and keeping them. “ Make a friend of 
the flag,” Mr. Wayne had said, and from this moment 
the boy took it to his very heart. Fight for it ? Aye, that 
he would! 

He walked slowly across the plain, still watching the 
flag, until he stood close beneath it, and could hear the soft 
flapping of the halyards as they beat against the pole. 
But now it was fairyland everywhere. 

All about him, spotting the green grass, were guns : big 


43 


THE FLAG 

guns and little guns; shining black and mouldy green; 
with piles of wicked-looking black shot. The guns them- 
selves, like many other senders-forth of mischief, looked 
sleepy and innocent enough. Tall trees rose up, bordering 
the little platform, from which the ground fell off steeply 
towards the river; some younger and softer tree heads 
showing there and hindering the further view. But Mag- 
nus wanted no more views just then. 

He stood leaning back against the white flagstaff, and 
for the moment felt content. Over his head the lovely 
folds of the flag curled and drooped and stretched away 
upon the wind; and again, as Magnus looked up at it, he 
doffed his hat. Then he found himself wondering what 
they did to the grass in this part of the world, to make it 
so smooth and soft and even. Then two or three uniforms 
went by, and he wondered over them : it was in truth fairy- 
land. Oh, if the folks at home could only see it! And 
then, suddenly, fairyland shifted its place, and fled away 
far out West, to the lonely regions of Barren Heights. Oh, 
if — not that they were here, but that he was there ! — just 
back once more at home! The boy’s hat came down low 
over his eyes. What did that old flag care for him ? And 
what did he care for grass, or views, or uniforms, or any- 
thing else, but only just to see mother, and the girls, and 
Cherry ? 

“ Bracing up ” is often so useful a process that one must 
not be too hard upon the agents that oblige us thereto ; and 
this time the agents were very comely. A cluster of young 
girls, clad in all the pretty frippery of the day, came gig- 
gling along the walk towards the flagstaff. It was not, 
Say something and laugh at it — or, Say something to make 
the others laugh; but there was a chronic state of giggle, 
as if life were such a very droll thing that no occasional out- 
burst could do it justice. The walk passed the flagstaff 
with some little green space between ; and they came flick- 


44 


THE FLAG 

ering along (I am really at a loss for a word) ; changing 
places, pulling each other, pushing each other, whispering, 
sometimes half-dancing, down the walk. 

It is needless to say that Magnus “ braced up ” imme- 
diately; and still leaning against the flagstaff, watched 
them from under his hat. 

These were not his fair foes of the ferryboat, whom he 
had supposed were rare specimens: now he was to learn 
that the species is widespread and common, in June. Again 
he heard the obnoxious word, “ candidate.” 

“ Holding up the flagstaff, as usual,” said the leading 
girl. “ I do verily believe they think that’s what they come 
for.” 

“ Hush ! ” said another. “ Don’t talk so loud. He might 
hear.” 

“ He’ll hear worse that that, before he’s been here many 
days,” said the first. “ I’ll just break it to him by degrees. 
Say, girls, let’s go and give him his ‘ technical,’ and get 
the start of Devlin Fritz.” 

“ Do be quiet ! ” said a third. “ No wonder they all call 
you ‘ Miss Saucy.’ ” 

“ It’s something to have them all call you anything,” 
returned the young lady with much content. 

“ Oh, that’s true ! ” said another. “ I declare, girls, I 
think it’s too bad. Here I’ve spent ten pounds of candy 
since I came, and I haven’t got one special cadet yet.” 

“ Huyler’s ? ” demanded Miss Saucy. 

“ Huyler’s.” 

“ Get Dulce to hand you over Mr. Day. She bores the 
poor boy to death. I know he’d be glad of almost any 
change,” said Miss Flirt. 

“Or she might try a bandied date,”’ suggested Miss 
Saucy with a sideway gesture. 

In the small babel of words and laughter that followed 
this, the girls drifted away out of hearing, and the sweet 


THE FLAG 45 

summer air was silent again. The leaves clapped hands 
softly, the folds of the beautiful flag curled and played as 
before over the head of the young candidate. But in the 
heart of Magnus himself, just now, the summer grace and 
peace found no foothold. Rather, his thoughts were like a 
November gale, with the air full of dust and rubbish. 

What if he was a candidate ? Men had to be, when they 
first came, he supposed. And what if he did mean to hold 
up the flagstaff? who had a better right? Magnus looked 
up defiantly, and made a profound reverence to the Stars 
and Stripes. All the same, he edged away as he saw an- 
other party of girls approaching, and went and sat down 
on a long iron seat among the tree shadows. One thing 
was certain: his sisters — and Cherry — should never set 
foot here, if he could help it. He had been thinking — if 
only they could get money enough — how fine it would be 
to have them all come and see this beautiful place. Such 
walks as they could take ! But West Point just swarmed 
with girls already. And at this point of his meditations 
Magnus was quite sure that he heard “ candidate ” again, 
from another jocund voice, 

“ Say, leFs find out ” 

“ What for ? ” said a pink vision. 

“ Fun,” said the white one : “ Oh, I know the regula- 
tion questions.” And but half under her breath, the pretty 
tones sang out: 

“ See where he hails from — 

What is his name ; 

Who was his ‘ pred.,’ 

And why he came.” 

“Who cares?” said the other girl, hurrying her along. 
“ Come, we are late.” 

That party passed, followed, it must be owned, by some 
rather fierce looks from Magnus. Then, slowly strolling 
down the pathway, came two more : a girl, in the height of 


46 


THE FLAG 


every fashion, and a tall fellow in close-fitting grey coat 
and the whitest of unwrinkled trousers. Over his head he 
carried the girl’s scarlet and lace parasol, shielding him- 
self as carefully as if she had brought it for that express 
purpose. As perhaps she had : who knows ? At all events, 
the little lady gazed up at the dark sunburnt face, with its 
vivid background, as if nothing could be too good to screen 
such a complexion. And he looked down at her — well, 
women never get just what they give, but he did look very 
admiringly; as if the delicate face needed nothing, not 
even a parasol. 

Whatever was the reason, this couple made Magnus 
more irate than any that had gone before. There was an 
instant antagonism to the tall cadet. His uniform was 
so becoming, and fitted so well; the glancing buttons were 
so attractive; the gold bars on the upper arm had such a 
distinguished look; the young stranger set him down at 
once for a coxcomb. But there was a little envy in it all. 
How cleverly he cut down the military stride to keep step 
with the girl’s mincing feet; a difficult thing, as Magnus 
knew. 

“ Taking care of his own precious face, and letting hers 
burn!” quoth the young civilian; but all the same, he 
would have given more money than he was likely to have 
soon to be in just such guise himself, with Cherry by his 
side. He’d show that fellow a thing or two. 

He was getting homesick again. All these people, with 
their friends and their fun, made him feel so desolately 
far away from everybody. He slouched his hat down fur- 
ther, and wandered off again, not looking much where he 
went; just following the path beneath his feet. Slowly 
round the guns, then on along the bank, and there found 
more seats. There was no sound of voice or step here, and 
Magnus sat down wearily, and leaned his head on his arm, 
and tried to fight the homesickness. For the moment he 


THE FLAG 47 

despised the whole race of girls, Cherry, of course, ex- 
cepted. “ Simpering up into that fellow’s face, as if there 
had never been a man before, nor would be again.” 

Yes, there was certainly a twinge of envy in Charle- 
magne’s heart. The tall cadet had carried himself with 
such careless, graceful erectness that there was no relief 
to be had out of calling him a “ ramrod.” And his white 
trousers were so white, and so without a wrinkle. 

“ I’d like to know how he manages that,” thought Mag- 
nus, the envy passing into wonder. With him, white 
trousers had been always uncertain and short-lived things. 
And now his thoughts flew far away again, over hills and 
prairie land ; and once more he was going through wild ex- 
ploits at home ; getting himself wet and muddy, and having 
the girls laugh at him from the midst of their intact fresh 
draperies. Magnus drew a long, heavy sigh. 

Then he roused himself and sat up; for again those 
measured steps, the peculiar tread of which he was just 
learning to know, sounded near by; and another cadet, 
from the opposite direction, came down the walk. He 
glanced at Magnus, then crossed the grass, and took his 
seat on the other end of the same bench; but said not a 
word, only gazed placidly up the river. And now, as one 
always looks whither another is looking, so also did 
Magnus. 

There were no trees in the way here, and the view was 
open. Close at his feet the ground fell sharply down to 
the level of the siege battery, where a dozen guns and 
mortars kept grim watch, their ugly black mouths pointed 
up-stream. Beyond the green parapet nothing made much 
show till you reached the river itself, which for ten miles 
here came flowing gently down, with no sharp turns; the 
whole of “ Martlaer’s Reach ” lay full in sight. In the far, 
far distance, an irregularly broken line of blue peaks 
brushed softly against the sky. At their feet lay the 


48 THEFLAG 

green wooded slopes of the Newburgh hills, with Newburgh 
itself sparkling in the sun. The line stretched across so 
straight from side to side, as if there the river began. 

Nearer, and on either hand, rising in abrupt masses from 
the water’s edge, lay Butter Hill and Breakneck, Bull Hill 
and Crow Nest; pillars of the north Highland gateway. 
All green, from brow to base, except where every now and 
then the granite framework of the mountains pushed it- 
self through in crags and ridges. The green was exquisite, 
with all the lush hues of June. 

Between the hills the flood of the great river poured 
along unchecked, until where in the very foreground the 
grey-green bluff of Martlaer’s Rock thrust itself out 
athwart the stream ; bringing it with one sharp turn to its 
very narrowest and deepest part. For a little distance 
then, in front of Magnus, the river ran east and west — 
along the Rock; then took another short turn, and went 
racing south ; the lovely “ Shaw-na-taw-ty,” that “ flows 
toward the midday.” Between the river and the homesick 
boy lay only the broken hillside and the silent guns. 

There were no human voices, either, but a chance med- 
ley of sweet sounds from other throats. Song sparrows in 
their rollicking glee, with the homespun twitter of a chip- 
ping sparrow, giving her brood their first outing. Robins 
kept up their changing chorus; crows cawed; among the 
distant trees you could hear the thrush bells now and 
then. The indescribable sighs and murmurs and trills of the 
summer wind, the soft touches of the mighty river along 
its banks, filled every moment of unappropriated time. 

Magnus forgot everything, as he looked and listened. 
June threw her warm spell over him, and for the minute 
again he was content. 

“ Yes, that can’t be beat,” remarked his neighbour in 
grey, who had been watching him closely. “Look at it 
all you want to; now is a good time.” 


THEFLAG 49 

“ I think every time is good, for such a view,” Magnus 
said, facing round. 

“ When do you report ? ” asked the other abruptly. 

“ To-morrow.” Magnus answered the question, per- 
ceiving the next instant that again he was noted as a candi- 
date. 

“ Well, next week, if you are here, you’ll find some other 
hills lying round promiscuous, and you won’t think quite 
so much about these.” 

“ How did you know I was to report at all ? ” 

The cadet laughed. 

“ No mistaking a candidate,” he said. “ You have the 
real all-overish look about you. And no need to huff up 
at it, either. I’ve been there myself, so I know.” 

“ Do you like it here ? ” said Magnus, the flush cooling 
down. 

“ Fair to middling. When I’m up in Math., keep out of 
Con., and don’t get skinned too often.” 

This was high Dutch to Magnus. But he was at the age 
when pertinent questions are far harder to ask than the 
impertinent; and nothing would have made him show his 
ignorance. He went back to the last subject. 

“ You say you know, because you’ve been a candidate 
yourself; but who tells all these girls?” 

“ Oh, the girls ! ” said the cadet. “ Yes, there’s a good 
many girls here; and what some of ’em don’t know, and 
don’t do, wouldn’t fill a collar-box. Even Crinkem’s head 
could hold it.” 

“ Who is Crinkem ? ” 

“ My respected classmate. Absolutely worried along so 
far, and gone on furlough. Nobody can guess how he did 
it, either. Who are you?” 

“ Charlemagne Kindred.” 

The cadet gave a long, “ Whew ! ” 

“ Is that all you have for week days ? ” he asked. 


50 


THE FLAG 


“ Not quite,” said Magnus, smiling in spite of himself. 
“ They call me Magnus, at home.” 

“ Won’t do you any good here,” said the other, shaking his 
head. “ Name’s got to go down in full, if it was Beelze- 
bub Nebuchadnezzar. You’ll be rechristened for common 
use.” 

“ Do they always do that ? ” said Magnus, looking grave. 

“ Mostly.” 

Magnus reddened. 

“I cannot see what the Faculty have to do with my 
name,” he said. “ It’s not their business.” 

“Not the Faculty, as you call them, at all,” said the 
cadet, “but your beloved fellow-students. They will take 
almost as anxious care of you as will the Com.” 

“ Oh, the other cadets ! ” said Magnus loftily. “ I’ll take 
care of them.” 

“ I would,” said the man in grey with dry em- 
phasis. “ Not too many at once. There’s quite a few of 
them.” 

Magnus sat studying the north view without seeing 
it. 

“ But How is this ? ” he said suddenly. “ You say your 
classmate has gone on furlough — why aren’t you gone 
too?” 

The cadet shrugged his shoulders. 

“Some men leave their country for their country’s 
good,” he said, “ and some stay in it, same at same. I lost 
my furlough. But anyhow Crinkem went ahead of time; 
folks sick at home. He’s always in luck.” 

“Lost it,” Magnus repeated. “How could you?” 

“Easy enough, if you run against the Tacs in a tight 
place. Lose anything here, except your heart and your 
appetite.” 

But to these last words Magnus gave no heed; his 
whole soul was astir with this new idea. Lose his fur - 


THEFLAG 51 

lough! Not go home even at the end of the two long 
years ! 

“ Can you do that ? ” he said. “ Is it often done ? ” 

“ Not so very. Oh, you can do it, fast enough, if you 
have a run of bad luck, as I did.” 

“ I don’t believe in luck,” Magnus answered him. 

“ Don’t you? Well, you will, when you’ve been here a 
month.” 

And now a party of strollers came by the seat; another 
much-dressed young damsel, set in a framework of grey 
uniforms. As they passed, the lady bowed; Magnus’s 
friend stood up and doffed his cap, the other cadets also 
touching theirs; and again (against his will) Magnus ad- 
mired and envied the easy precision of every movement. 
He wondered if he could take off his hat with that peculiar 
swing ? — and said no, to himself, at once. But he would 
have it before furlough — and how astonished Cherry would 
be! 

“ Been round Flirtation ? ” demanded his new acquaint- 
ance abruptly, watching the three who went slowly on to- 
wards where the path left the brow of the hill, and ran 
down among the cedars. 

“ Bound flirtation ! ” 

The cadet laughed. 

“You needn’t look so scared,” he said — “it’s only one 
of our walks. At least it isn’t generally anything else. 
Come on, and I’ll show it to you. I don’t see what 
Fitch is after with that girl; cutting out poor little 
Day. And he can talk a dozen to Day’s one. Come 
along.” 

So they rose up, and stepped on at a good pace, till they 
had the others in full sight again; dropping then into 
the like easy saunter. At least it was easy to one, but for 
Magnus like being in bonds ; and he was constantly getting 
ahead, checking himself, and falling back. 


52 


THE FLAG 

“ I’ll teach them how to walk, when I’m once in,” he 
thought. Then aloud : 

“ We should call this slow doings out West,” he said. 

“ Yes,” said his companion. “ Generally want to get 
there, out West, I suppose ? ” 

“ We certainly do.” 

“All right. Well, those folks don’t.” 

It was such a self-evident fact about the three in front, 
that Magnus looked from them to the man at his side, and 
his eyes flashed with fun. They both laughed. 

“Do none of them ever want to get anywhere? ” said 
Magnus. 

“Not often — on Flirtation. Spoil the fun, you 
know.” 

“ Well, you say that is Mr. Fitch, and the other is Mr. 
Day, then who are you ? ” said Magnus. 

“ To be sure ! ” said the cadet with a lazy drawl. “ I’ve 
been wondering how long a Westerner could get along 
without asking.” 

If Magnus grew hot at this implied charge, he had no 
chance to show it then. A sudden drum call, clear and 
loud, sent its racket through the still air. The cadet 
stopped short. 

“ There ! ” he said ; “ that beastly review is to come off, 
after all.” 

And without another word, he turned and darted up the 
hill. In another minute, Fitch and Day went speeding 
by, at the same keen, measured pace, which struck Magnus 
as unlike anything he had ever seen. A few bounds 
brought him up to the green level of the plain, where he 
could watch the three, as they hurried along to the grey 
barracks. Nor those three alone. From every side, from 
all directions, the grey and white came hurrying in. 
Hurrying — yet always with the same even, regular, swift 
step; the foot lifted just so high, the right arm swinging 


THE FLAG 


53 


just so far; and with no seeming effort. Magnus saw one 
and another of them take "off his cap to some lady as he 
flew by, but without the least pause or break. Only two 
or three very much belated men dropped into a walk as 
they neared the barracks. As Kosamund said, “ It was too 
late to get up early.” 


VI 


A LONELY CANDIDATE 

Nothing useless is, or low; 

Each thing in its place is best : 

And what seems but idle show, 

Strengthens and supports the rest. 

—Longfellow. 

M AGNUS strolled leisurely along, thinking first 
that he could show these cadets how to run, and 
then beginning to have grave doubts on the 
subject; and finally finding himself a seat under the trees, 
where he could look and listen in shady comfort. Eyes and 
ears had full occupation. 

There was a busy note of preparation everywhere, and 
especially among the drums. Beating there, and then 
beating here ; the sound caught up and echoed back from 
the grey rocks on the green hillside. Then came out uni- 
forms of various sorts (Magnus personified the dress, not 
knowing the men) and proceeded to mark off a certain 
space on the green in front of him, setting a gay little 
banner at the four corners of a large, large square. 

Then, at first slowly, but soon hurrying up from every 
point of the compass, a many-coloured crowd swarmed in 
and filled the seats — filled them presently so full that Mag- 
nus gave up his place to the next gauzy creature that came 
along. She fluttered down into the seat with much gratu- 
lation and no thanks, and Magnus gravely took his stand 
in the rear. 

He had no lack of company, even there. Officers in vari- 
ous uniforms, civilians in all sorts of coats, and girls in 
all sorts of finery, stood beside and around him. 

54 


A LONELY CANDIDATE 55 

And now, also, there came straying in another small 
posse, whom Magnus instinctively knew as of his own kind. 
Yes, they must be candidates; partly, perhaps, because 
they could not possibly be anything else; no other class 
owned them. Yet how did he know that? — to whom all 
classes here were strange. What possible connection be- 
tween that dapper little fellow in straw hat and black 
alpaca coat, and this young giant who wore a cloth cap and 
a fluttering linen duster ? Or how was his next neighbour 
in a Derby and long frock coat like the fourth man, who 
wore brown trousers, a cutaway coat, and a wideawake? 
Yet even Magnus could see that “ candidate ” was written 
on them all. So plainly, indeed, that he stepped further 
back and put himself behind the tree. Anybody who looked 
at him standing there — and some did look — saw a tall, 
well-made young fellow in a neat and perfectly unobtrusive 
suit of brown-grey cloth. Very dark hair and with a wil- 
ful curl that tossed it about every way. Excellent features, 
ignorant as yet of life’s moulding touch; and a sweet, 
mobile mouth, set just now in very grave lines indeed, and 
so hiding one of the great charms of his face. For nobody 
could watch Magnus Kindred when he smiled or laughed, 
and not notice the clean look: the utterly pure and true 
lines into which those grave ones changed. For the rest, 
hands and feet were well shaped and in excellent order; 
and the whole bearing was both self-reliant and uncon- 
scious. 

But it seemed as if the gayer grew the scene, the soberer 
grew that young face gazing out from behind the tree. 
For of all the lonely places, commend me to an unknown 
throng of pleasure-seekers, where everyone belongs to 
someone, is waiting for someone, or is waited for, and 
you belong to none. No eyes are watching for you, no 
heart stirs when you come in sight; and no one will miss 
you if you do not come at all. 


56 


A LONELY CANDIDATE 

So Magnus felt that day. The more people came, the 
more he was crowded almost from standing room, the wider 
grew the heart distance between himself and the bright 
world about him. Gay girls, pretty girls, thronged the 
seats and the walk; Magnus only felt that none of them 
was Cherry, and every older woman that came by, decked 
in feathers and flowers and laces, sent his thoughts off with 
such a rush to his own dear mother, in her simplest go-to- 
meeting bonnet, that it was all the boy could do to stand 
there and give no sign. And at even the officers he looked 
askance, wondering which of them might possibly be 
“ Tacs.” 

“ Poor fellow ! ” said some of the kind hearts amid the 
finery. “ He looks pretty homesick.” 

“Such a handsome boy, too. You must take him out 
in the German, Floy.” 

“ Oh, he can’t go to the German,” said Miss Floy, who 
had reached the mature age of thirteen. “None of the 
plebs can. And he’s only a candidate, yet. Besides, I don’t 
care much for any man that doesn’t wear chevrons.” 

And the mother laughed and repeated the smart saying 
to her next neighbour. 

If there arose in the mind of Charlemagne Kindred an 
instant resolve to wear chevrons, at whatever cost, you 
must not think hardly of him. These pretty, airy crea- 
tures wield a powerful sceptre and their silken cords are 
strong. 

How the people crowded in ! They sat where they could, 
and stood where they shouldn’t. They grouped themselves 
round the old trees, and made a strong background to the 
iron seats. Officers, civilians, matrons, girls — and candi- 
dates. Little children dropped down on the green edge of 
the parade ground, and at last grown-up and hard-pushed 
people sat there, too. Then an imposing police sergeant 
came along, waving them off with his black wand. And 


A LONELY CANDIDATE 57 

the people jumped up, growling and frowning, and, as 
soon as they saw his back, dropped down again. 

As for Magnus, the whole thing seemed to wind him up 
in tightening cords of tension. He was outside now, but 
to-morrow at this time he would be in; caught and bound 
and caged behind a cordon of regulations. Assigned a 
place, turned over to duties which he could in no wise quit 
or change. Not to see home again for two long years. 

Should he do it? Or should he, in these last hours of 
freedom, set himself free for good? Take the first train 
for the West, and leave all his great prospects behind him, 
and the chevrons and shoulder-straps to someone else? 
Thoughts came and went, surged and rolled back ; and the 
whistle of each train, as it flew by, just made the confu- 
sion deeper. “ Come ! ” they seemed to say. “ Come-m- 
me-me ! ” 

Meantime the review went on ; the citizen actors showed 
how they could not march and the cadets how they could ; 
and this last part was so fine that Magnus fairly forgot 
himself and his trouble. Round the great square they 
went; the grey and white lines moving like some one 
elastic thing. Corners made no break, hot sunbeams 
seemed unnoticed. So they marched round; first slow, 
then fast ; and then began the double-timing. 

How beautiful it was ! Privates in their glancing lines; 
cadet officers leading on, and running backwards or for- 
wards with equally unerring footsteps. Heading all, the 
Commandant. Years had passed away since he learned the 
double-quick; and the supple boy had changed into the 
grey-haired man; but his foot never faltered, his step 
never lagged. The white-plumed blue uniform led on the 
grey with a gallantry it was pretty to see. Magnus 
watched the whole with deepest admiration; down to the 
last bit of timeful running with no music to mark it off. 

He was noticing every step; eyeing the black shoe-soles 


58 


A LONELY CANDIDATE 


that came up as one, the bent-knee line of white trousers, 
the glitter of the guns; forgetting everything else, when 
again the hated word came full upon his ear. 

“ J ust look at that candidate, will you ! It’s as good as 
a play. I wonder he didn’t join in.” 

“ Ya-as,” was answered in a drawling tone by her escort. 
“ There he stands. Study his perfections now, while you 
can, Miss Jenny. Next week he will have ceased to shine 
upon the polite world. Exit the candidate, enter the 
beast. That is, if he gets in, which is doubtful.” 

A small thing may do the work where a large one fails ; 
trains got no hearing, after that. That he would enter 
became instantly a fixed fact to that particular candidate. 

The girl was certainly pretty. How would Cherry look, 
sitting there, and with himself in a grey coat bending over 
her, and twirling her parasol? Cherry was handsomer — 
miles away — than this girl. Deeper eyes, tenderer mouth, 
more glowing cheeks, too, for that matter. Yet she would 
not look so, the boy honestly owned to himself, though 
fuming a little over the admission; the whole make-up 
would be different. The very idea of such shoes as this 
damsel thrust out into the sunlight had never entered 
Cherry’s wholesome head. “ Shoe pegs,” Magnus called 
the heels, with great scorn, and set right in the middle of 
her foot. And scarlet stockings. And her dress — what 
was it made of? No, Cherry would not look so; and how- 
ever he might frown, Magnus felt the glamour, as most 
men do, of city dressmaking and “ the correct thing.” 

“ Country-made gowns look so different,” said some- 
one behind him. 

Then that girl further on, in fluffs of white lace and 
muslin, white shoes, white gloves, and her dainty head 
crowned with “ an acre ” of Leghorn, and “ a half 
bushel” of roses. No, neither would Cherry look like her. 

And now the boy’s fancy brought the little country 


A LONELY CANDIDATE 59 

maiden, in her country garb — even her Sunday best — and 
set her down beside these two. A plain white gown, with 
no setting off but the simple ruffles which Cherry had em- 
broidered, and the exquisite laundry work which she had 
also done herself. Black shoes, which were made for walk- 
ing (“but either one of those white ones could hold ’em 
both,” thought Magnus, in his hot fancy). Then a broad 
straw hat, round which Violet’s deft fingers had twined 
a dark green riband; while the hands, which were small, 
indeed, and comely, but unwhitened with either idleness 
or lemon, wore only a pair of spotless Lisle thread gloves. 

Magnus looked at the pink, the white, the tan kids all 
about him, and drew a deep breath. 

“ But she shall sit there ! ” he said, with one of his fierce 
mental bursts. “ She shall sit there, and look just so. No, 
not just so, for, if they try their prettiest, they can never 
any of them look like her.” 


VII 

IN FOR IT 


With this hand work, and with the other pray, 

And God will bless them both from day to day. 

— Old Vierlander Motto. 



OME little time after the foregoing events, the 
following letter was sent from the West Point 
Post Office: 


“ Camp Hard, June — , 18 — . 


“ My Dear Folks at Home : 

"Well, I am in for it. Uncle Sam has me, body and soul. 
At least the body is self-evident, and as I don’t get time to 
say my soul’s my own, I suppose he claims that, too, — Mr. 
Wayne to the contrary. Bought and paid for and sworn in ; 
and earmarks enough for a drove of pigs. Do you want to 
know what I look like, you girls? Just at present I am a 
compound of grey and green in about equal mixture. No, 
I guess the green has it. Hair cut short, army shoes, and 
a brand new prison dress which might fit anybody else as 
well as it does me, and better. I get up by a gun, and go 
to bed by a drum, and have a bugle to tell me when to go 
to sleep, and as we are young and tender in the ways of 
the world, at every meal the first captain informs us when 
to stop eating. (He’s nothing special to look at, Cherry. 
Don’t open your eyes too wide. But he’s such an old spoon 
that he’s always in a hurry to get out and walk with some 
girl or other). 

“We study straight lines in the morning, and play leap- 
60 


IN FOR IT 61 

frog in the afternoon; and have girls come and make fun 
of us while we’re at it. Yesterday they enjoyed it more 
than was good for themselves, and one of the officers or- 
dered them off. 

"There are two special prigs in chevrons, who have 
charge of our thumbs and shoulderblades ; and when you 
girls come to see me, one of ’em won’t get an introduction, 
that’s all. What do you think he did yesterday? It was 
hot enough to melt down your ideas, if you had any — hot 
as the middle line of the equator ; and he had been drilling 
us as if he had never been drilled himself, and didn’t know 
how it felt. So, when drill was over, he stood a lot of us 
round his tent door in the sun, and then made iced lemon- 
ade, and sat there drinking it with us looking on. Give 
us some? Not quite. Go to the store and buy our own 
lemons, Rose? Why, we can’t get a shoestring without a 
special order. Corporal Mean smuggled in his sugar from 
the mess hall ; and I guess Miss Flyaway brought him the 
lemons. If you want to know about Miss Flyaway, she’s 
one of the girls; a summer girl, as they say here, and we 
plebs could spare her till winter just as well as not. She’s 
as bad as a third-class corporal — only we can laugh at 
her and we can’t at him. If we did, we’d be skinned in 
a minute. This is what I should hear read out after 
parade : 

“ - Kindred — disrespect to superior officer, at about 4.30 
p. m/ — demerits according. Oh, well ! we’ll wear 
through somehow ; it takes a good deal to kill a man. And 
they’re not all like that. Cadet Captain Steady called me 
into his tent to-day and gave me a whole lot of good ad- 
vice that would have gone to mother’s heart. There’s an- 
other Captain, too, Mr. Upright, who’s as nice as he can be ; 
and some of the Tacs aren’t very bad to take. But we’ve 
got one in our company ! I just wish you could see him. 
We call him Towser— because he’s always nosing round, 


62 


IN FOR IT 


and sniffing about everywhere, to see what sort of a dry 
bone he can find to pick. He hasn’t hived any of mine 
yet, but he spied a whole square inch of paper in front of 
Randolph’s tent and reported him for disorder. You have 
to polish your shoestrings to go down A Company street, 
when he’s in charge. So whoever sees him coming fires off 
a volley, and then we all know. Bow — wow — wow — wow 
— wow — wow ! 

“ You’ll like my tentmate, Rig. That’s not his name, of 
course, but we call him so because he’s so B. J. about his 
dress. They don’t leave him much hair to brush, but what 
he has takes up half his spare time. 

“ Now I know mother is aching to put in her questions — 
just waiting till I get through writing stuff. Well, ma’am, 
you see, we just have to praise ourselves a little bit here, 
because if we don’t do it, it don’t get done; and so I call 
myself a pretty good boy. Whether I’d suit you exactly, 
I’ll not say. I go to prayer meeting twice a week and once 
to Chapel ( have to go there, so you needn’t give me a 
credit), and I’ve not missed reading my chapter one day 
yet. Mr. Upright came by the other day when I was at it, 
and he stopped and walked in. 

“‘Keep straight on with your good home habits, Mr. 
Kindred,’ he said, ‘ no matter what anybody says or does. 
Read the Bible just as much as you like; the more, the 
better. Remember : 

“ ‘ He always wins, who sides with God.’ 

“So I read every day. And I’m not likely to stop praying 
as long as I have you four to pray about. I guess I shall 
keep my colours flying — a storm flag, anyway. But it 
does blow pretty hard here sometimes, that is sure. Train 
says I can’t do it. No use, he declares : says he’s tried it 
and it won’t work. (He was turned back, and so he has 
been here a year and thinks he knows.) He says there’s 


IN FOR IT 63 

no place in the course for religion; just as well give it up 
first as last. 

<( So I told him my mother had no c give up ’ in her 
dictionary and never taught me how to spell the words. 

“Poor Train! His mother went to heaven three years 
ago; though how she can enjoy herself up there, with him 
going on as he does down here, I can’t see. Maybe she 
doesn’t know. 

“ There goes the first drum ! Good-bye. Kiss each other 
all round for me, beginning anywhere. 

“ Magnus Kindred, 

“ TJ. S. Corps of Cadets. 

“ You mustn’t think hard of Rig; he’s a real good fellow. 
But you see he’s a pinky-white creation: and it hurts his 
feelings to look like an acorn.” 

This letter was duly addressed, sealed, and stamped; 
went on the orderly’s back to the post office, and thence, in 
due course, across the continent to the far-off simple home 
at Barren Heights. There it alighted with the force and 
precision of a bombshell. That is, if force may be meas- 
ured by commotion. 

The strange phrases, the new ideas, the dim, vague 
vision of most unwonted doings — there is no telling what 
a stir-up it all was. The three girls had gone to the post 
office together in the course of their afternoon walk, and 
had taken turns at bringing the precious missive home. 
Now they sat about on the front steps, while Mrs. Kindred, 
in the porch rocking chair, opened and read the letter aloud. 

I think she never even thought of a hidden meaning in 
“ Camp Hard,” passing it by as a mere name ; but as she 
read on, even where the words themselves were perplexing, 
their intent was unmistakable. At the end of almost the 
very first sentence Mrs. Kindred took off her glasses, laid 
them down on the letter, and looked about her. 


64 


IN FOR IT 

“ No time to say his soul is his own,” she said. “ Why, 
what does this mean ? ” 

Everybody else had felt the shock, but as usual they all 
crowded in to the rescue. 

“ It must be just his way of talking,” said Violet. 
“ Don’t you know, mother, that when Magnus gets excited 
he always goes on stilts ? ” 

“ And of course, he is very busy,” said Rose, “ with so 
many new things to do.” 

“And you can see he is talking in the air, Mrs. Kin- 
dred,” said Cherry’s sweet voice, “because he instances 
something for which he does not want time. Magnus 
has never called his soul his own, since he gave it to Christ 
to save and keep.” 

“ Dear boy ! ” said the mother. “ Thank you, Cherry, 
for reminding me. Yes, I will not doubt,” — and she read 
on. N 

“I cannot see why he says * skinned,’” said Violet. 
“ It’s a very queer way to talk.” 

“But just like him,” said Rose. “Magnus always did 
talk wild — just a little bit,” the sisterly censure softening 
down. “And you see they play games for exercise — so 
that is very good.” 

“ I suppose studying straight lines must mean drawing,” 
said Cherry, looking down at the open letter. “ Magnus 
will not care what they do, if they will only let him draw.” 

“ I am not so anxious about all that ” said the mother 
thoughtfully. “ Boys at school must have some hardships 
and do many things they do not like. And you see he does 
go to prayer meeting and read the Bible.” 

“ But he says such strange things,” said Violet, study- 
ing the letter from her side. “ Do all people in the East 
have names like that ? ‘ Rig,’ and ‘ Mean,’ and ‘ Upright ’ 
* — it sounds like the Pilgrim’s Progress.” 

“ And so it is,” said the mother, smiling faintly, through 


65 


IN FOR IT 

two big teardrops, “ and Magnus is going over a part of 
the road where we have never been. That must be, girls. 
But the Lord is as strong there as here in Barren Heights ; 
and Magnus is no weaker than he was at home — bless his 
dear heart! He never could bear that word ‘weak.’ I 
wish he had told us what he means by ‘ a storm flag.’ ” 

“ Why, it must be a flag that flies in all weathers ! 99 cried 
Cherry. “So strong that the wind cannot tear it, and so 
deep-coloured that the rain cannot wash it out.” 

Well for them all that she did not know enough to add, 
“ And so small that it can hardly be seen.” 

But no such thought cast its dark shadow. Mrs. Kin- 
dred looked at the sweet eyes, all aglow with the spirit of 
the martyrs; the lips in a quiver, the cheeks in a flush; 
then took Cherry in her arms and kissed her. 

“ You are never anything but a blessing,” she said, and 
went away to pour out tears and petitions in her own 
private room ; with a heart-aching sense all the while that 
she wished some other boy had the glory and the brass 
buttons, and that her own Magnus was safe at home. 

Meanwhile the girls in the porch talked on. 

“I dare say you are right about the flag, Cherry,” 
said Rose, “but there are other things I cannot under- 
stand.” 

“ It is dreadful about his clothes,” put in Violet. 

“I do not mind that so much,” said Rose. “Mother 
always said Magnus was a fidget to fit. But what can he 
mean by B. J. ? Oh, girls, do you think it could possibly 
be some dreadful expression he has learned, and didn’t like 
to write out to us ? 99 And Rose put her head down, in great 
distress. 

“ It could not be ! 99 said Violet, with a scared look. 
“ Why, you are talking about Magnus ! Rose, I believe you 
are crazy.” 

“ I think I must be,” said Rose, lifting her head and 


66 


IN FOR IT 


brushing off the tears. “ Of course, it is all my nonsense. 
Cherry, where are you going? ” 

“ Home,” said the girl, pulling on her deep sunbonnet. 
“ I have something to do. Fll be down again soon.” 

Ho one noticed how white the young face had grown 
while the other girls wept ; no one guessed the cause of this 
sudden home-going; but as she went, Cherry clenched her 
hands for very anguish of heart. Magnus change like 
that ? Magnus learn words so bad that he would not write 
them home? Ho indeed! — it could not be; she knew it 
could not. All the same, that vision of possibility had 
come into her heart, and come to stay ; and nothing stilled 
the aching until she had carried her burden to the feet of 
Him, “ Who is able to keep you from falling, and to present 
you faultless before the presence of his glory.” 

Cherry did not cry : she was notv given to tears : but from 
that day on, two Bible verses answered to each other in her 
heart like a sweet chime : 

“ Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, that have not 
defiled their garments,” and “He is able to save to the 
uttermost.” 


VIII 


RUBS THE WRONG WAY 

Now don’t go off half cock ; folks never gains 
By usin’ pepper sarce instead o’ brains. 

— Biglow Papers. 

I F Cadet Magnus Kindred knew in a general sort of 
way that all the simple, loving women folk at home 
were praying for him morning, noon, and night, 
"and watching thereunto with all perseverance,” it was 
with a very easy remembrance of the fact, and not the 
faintest idea that anything but pleasure touched the case. 
And he would have simply shouted at Rose’s panic over the 
unexplained " B. J.” In fact, if anybody knows the origin 
of those two cabalistic letters, Magnus certainly did not. 

Indeed, he had scant time for running down questions. 
Drills began as soon as examination was over, and were 
pushed on "fiercely” (as Randolph declared), hot sun or 
no sun, rested or tired. Though Magnus had been used to 
such an active open-air life that all this came easier to 
him than to some others. As to the rest, he got along 
pretty well for a " pleb,” having a certain sensible nature 
which made light of hardships, and was not quick to take 
offence. So when he was jeered and pointed at, chin poked 
in and toes pushed out, he rarely said anything stronger, 
even to himself, than, " J ust you wait ! ” Good common 
sense everywhere befriended him, even when the drill mas- 
ters abused their power, or first classmen showed their 
prowess by " jumping ” plebs. 

So he brought in water and cleaned guns; stood at- 
tention, and stood his ground ; and when the time came for 
07 


68 RUBS THE WRONG WAY 

that amusement, “ advanced ghosts” in the most correct 
terms, but kept his musket against all attempts of Cadet 
Devlin and his compeers. Nay, on one such occasion, he 
gave the marauder the most accurate measure of himself 
upon the ground that the young man had ever had. Of 
course Magnus was reported, but he gave too straight 
answers for the charge to stand, and the upshot was that 
Mr. Devlin lost his chevrons “for hazing plebs.” The 
whole account caused great consternation at home, only 
lulled by the assurance Magnus gave that if he had let 
anyone take his gun, he himself might have been put 
in “ light prison ” or sent home in disgrace. For to the 
bewildered mind of a pleb in those early days, anything 
might happen. 

Devlin swore vengeance, and in a small way carried it 
out. But young Kindred laughed off some things, ignored 
others, and now and then gave Mr. Devlin a blaze out of 
his honest eyes before which that gentleman rather shriv- 
elled up. Nobody liked to exactly try to handle Charle- 
magne Kindred : there was about him “ a look of unknown 
quantities” — as Mr. Upright remarked one day. Cadet 
Upright was a staunch friend ; and it was a blessing to all 
the plebs in Camp Hard that year that he was head man 
over them. 

“ Come and clean my gun, Mr. Kindred,” he would say, 
adding, when Magnus was in the tent, “ The gun is not very 
dirty, and there is no hurry about it, but you must be 
doing something, and in here is better than out there.” 

A fact which Magnus realised when from the cool re- 
cesses of the tent he saw other plebs fetching water in the 
sun, or standing attention for a lecture from Mr. Devlin : 
teased and worried and laughed at by Mr. Prank. 

It was during the fervid days of that July that Rig 
(“poor Rig,” as Magnus generally termed him in the 
letters home) went through a small bit of experience 


RUBS THE WRONG WAY 69 

which, by his own account, made him “a sadder, if not a 
wiser, man.” 

The morning was intensely hot. The plebs had been 
out at their early drill and now in the canvas shade were 
enjoying a few minutes’ rest. Guard-mounting was just 
over, and for a brief space no one had anything special to 
do. The visitors’ seats were nearly deserted, with only a 
few sentimentals from either side the colour line still 
lounging there. The sentries paced up and down in full 
fatigue dress: the row of stacked arms shimmered in the 
heat. 

In his tent Magnus was devouring over again the last 
night’s letter from home, and so did not notice what was 
going on, until the shadow of Cadet Prank in the tent 
door made him look up in time to see Rig (alias McLean) 1 
start to his feet and stand very stiff indeed. 

“ Good-day, Mr. McLean,” said the man with chevrons. 
“ Don’t disturb yourself. I’ll not come in. I know you’ve 
been hard at it this morning, and I really hate to ask you 
to go out again, — but in such a case,” — and Mr. Prank 
gazed into the glowing sunshine in deep perplexity. 

Magnus, watching from the depths of the tent, saw the 
gleam which no effort of Prank’s could keep out of his 
eyes, with the dangerously solemn lines about the mouth. 
But poor Rig at such honeyed words from an upper class- 
man, lost what little everyday perception belonged to him. 
“ He’s just got to learn for himself, though,” thought 
Magnus, looking on with intense amusement. 

Mr. Prank suddenly turned and glanced suspiciously 
down towards the listener; but Magnus was all quiet, be- 
hind his letter. 

“ You see, Mr. McLean,” Prank went on, dropping his 
voice a little, “ I want a man I can trust, to do me a small 
service. If you are not too much fatigued — it would not 
take long.” 


70 


RUBS THE WRONG WAY 


Visions of Mr. Prank for his bosom friend, and Camp 
Hard suddenly transformed into Elysium, floated before 
Rig’s eyes. 

“ Yes, sir, — no, sir,” be answered, gathering up the 
points. 

"It is really but a minute’s work,” said Prank with 
another glance over Rig’s head towards Magnus; “but a 
particular friend of mine has gone on guard without his 
gloves. Most absent-minded man alive ! And if the Com. 
comes along, he’s ruined. So I thought if you would just 
take them to him — you see 1 should have to report him. 
He’s on post No. 6.” 

Mr. Prank held out a pair of immaculate white gloves. 
But now Rig drew back. To waylay a sentinel on his beat, 
was something so clearly beyond pleb limits that he took 
fright. 

“Yes, sir,” he began; “certainly, sir. But you know, 
sir, it’s against orders, I believe ” 

Mr. Prank drew himself up to all his inches. 

“That will do,” he said. “Of course, I don’t know 
much about regulations and never heard the orders. Very 
kind of you to instruct me, I am sure ; I shall not forget 
it! Sorry to have disturbed your toilette, Mr. McLean, 
but I thought such a trifle could not seriously put you out. 
Someone else, probably, will be kind enough — whose hair 
curls easier than yours.” 

And tucking the white gloves into the cadet pocket (his 
sleeve), Mr. Prank strode haughtily away. 

Rig felt miserable. He did not see that Magnus in his 
dark corner was shaking from head to foot. But to lose 
his character for obligingness ! With a bound he was after 
the retreating chevrons. 

“ Oh, Mr. Prank ! ” he said. “Of course I didn’t mean 
that you didn’t know, sir; and I have just thought of a 
way, if you think it will do. I can hang the gloves on one 


RUBS THE WRONG WAY 71 

of the bayonets where the arms are stacked, you know, sir, 
and then he can get them for himself.” 

“ The very thing ! ” said Prank, with a well-kept face. 
“ I see you are bright, Mr. McLean, as well as obliging. 
Take the gloves, my dear fellow, and be quick. And count 
upon me hereafter.” 

With a swelling heart Rig stepped briskly up to the 
shining row of guns, where not an inch nor a line was out 
of the most spick-and-span state of military precision, and 
hung the white pendant on a glittering point of steel. 
And as he turned — alas! he was tapped on the shoulder 
and marched off to the guard tent “ for tampering with the 
arms.” 

“ I shouldn’t have minded that so much,” he said after- 
wards to Magnus, “ if I hadn’t been such a double-distilled 
fool. And I’m not a fool really, you know, — but I’m not 
‘a gem of purest ray serene,’ either. And I just lost 
my head with being told I was.” 

Plenty of that sort of sport (to give it its common 
name) went on in Camp Hard, and even the most patient 
men grew tired of it, and the most good-natured got cross. 
It is monotonous when all the fun goes to somebody else. 
Even the straight shoulders sometimes rebelled against the 
perpetual bracing up; and many a poor fourth classman 
wished that his grey trousers had no side seam which could 
serve as a landmark to his weary thumbs : for in those days 
“ finning out ” was in full force. 

But indeed it was sometimes hard to take even what the 
law allowed. 

A strict order had been published that no cadet should 
ask a pleb to perform any menial service, but when Cor- 
poral Main remarked, “ Mr. Stone, there are some very 
dusty shoes in my tent,” — no more was needed. Stone 
was just come in from drill, and ached in every inch; but 
he went at the shoes, and cleaned and rubbed and polished 


72 


RUBS THE WRONG WAY 

for dear life, while Corporal Main strolled off with Miss 
Flyaway, and told her the story. 

Again, another humane order was read out one day in 
the Mess Hall, to the effect that in that place of supposed 
relaxation plebs need not “ brace,” but might sit and 
stand “at will.” But the minute the reader’s back was 
turned Cadet Prank drawled out: 

“ Boys, hadn’t you all a great deal rather brace up ? ” 
And so many hurriedly answered, “ Yes, sir ! ” that the 
contrary noes were never counted. 

That was the way of it ; and by dint of being laughed at 
and pointed at; drilled, straightened, pulled into shape, 
and called “ beasts,” the fourth classmen began to feel as 
if in truth the name fitted. They huddled together in 
corners, talked in whispers, and told endless stories of 
home. 


IX 


CAMP HARD 

Marcus Antonius. Caesar dear, is there no way this troubling my 
dear little plebeian sentinels can be stopped ? 

Gcesar. There probably is, but we have not found it yet. 

— Colour Line Tragedy of 1890. 

N OR yet. And so, year by year, for a time, the 
new fourth classmen worked out pretty fairly 
Lowell’s lines : 

“ Mis’ble as roosters in a rain, 

Heads down, and tails half-mast.” 

Magnus Kindred was speeding along through camp one 
morning, thinking of home, when he was hailed by an 
upper classman. 

“ See here, beast, what’s your name ? ” 

Magnus made answer, with what composure of face and 
voice he could call up at such short notice. 

Where did you come from?” And again the reply 
came with fair coolness. 

“ Got so few men out there, they give ’em long names to 
stretch out and cover the country. Who was your pred. ? ” 
“ Mr. Dunn, sir. He resigned, sir.” 

“ Good example for you to follow in November,” said 
Mr. Seaton, “but you’ve got to be taken care of in the 
mean time. Wipe that smile off, sir! What’s your tech- 
nical name ? ” 

“ Haven’t got any, sir.” 

“ Well, if anyone asks you that again, tell ’em it’s Lo- 
renzo Monkey,” said Seaton, and walked away. 

Magnus shook his fist at him (mentally), but what can 

73 


74 


CAMP HARD 


a pleb do? And so to the next inquirer he answered 
(pretty ungraciously, it must be owned) : 

“ Somebody said it was Lorenzo Monkey, sir.” 

“ Can’t have a monkey without a tail,” said Mr. Danby. 
“Now remember, beast, you are technically called: ‘Lo- 
renzo Monkey ; and the name is not fame.’ Take your eyes 
off me, sir ! ” 

Well, the tail grew — naturally; and every time the name 
was called for, to amuse one man or a dozen, somebody 
would add on a word, and then Magnus was bid to rattle 
the whole thing off, amid shouts of laughter. He was re- 
quired also to write out his technical name in full, and 
hand the paper in under the guise of an official document : 
a half sheet of paper duly folded, and inscribed as follows : 

Camp Hard, 

West Point, N. Y., 

July — , 18 — . 


Kindred, C, 

Cadet Private. Co. “A.” 4th Class. 


Subscribed Copy of 
“ Technical Name.” 


Within, it ran thus : Camp Hard, 

West Point, N. Y., 
July — , 18 — . 

To Cadet Lieut. Crabapple. (Through the proper channels.) 

Sir: I have the honour to submit the following, — my technical 
name for the summer encampment, U. S. M. A. To wit : 

I am Lorenzo Monkey ; and the name is not fame. It is tame: 
it is lame : it is shame : it is blame : it is game. Yet I claim, a 
Colonial dame was my flame, when I came. Same at same. 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 
Charlemagne Kindred, 
Cadet Private, Co. “A.” Fourth Class. 
To Cadet Lieut. Crabapple, 

Commanding Battalion of Crabs. 


75 


CAMP HARD 

Magnus chafed at all this stuff; growled over it/ almost 
resisted ; and yet it was wise to pass things by as quietly as 
he could. All the same, his feeling towards some of the 
upper classmen was getting to be a very fixed fact, indeed. 

Mr. Prank, for instance, was much given to hops, — also to 
prinking for the same: and it was in his heart to com- 
bine all the good things he could, and “ crawling ” plebs 
came in among the rest. So on hop nights, after supper, 
when Mr. Prank was shaving, dressing, and vainly en- 
deavouring to curl his short hair, Magnus Kindred was 
frequently detailed as valet. The work being to follow Mr. 
Prank about the tent and fan him during these fatigues, 
and also to soothe and attune his feelings by singing 
“Annie Laurie” or some other lovelorn ditty. How Magnus 
did hate it! — and how he did secretly vow vengeance, if 
ever he himself should have half a chance with Mr. Prank’s 
best girl! But then! Mr. Prank had a relay of “best 
girls,” and could spare one or two just as well as not. 

On the other hand, the two men who “tented” with 
Magnus thought he had an easy time. 

“ If you had to black Mr. Mean’s shoes ! ” said Randolph. 

“ Or clear up after old Seaton,” said Rig. 

Rig’s technical name taxed all his powers of memory 
and patience. It began: 

“I am the distilled quintessence of stuff, the double- 
dyed result of being dipped in the Styx,” — and so on, ad 
infinitum, and to Rig, certainly, ad nauseam . 

Homesickness had broken loose in the fourth class, of 
late, and become epidemic. These boys were but boys, and 
the manliest of them all would — many a day — have given 
up his hopes of being a brigadier just to lay his head down 
on his mother’s apron, and have her pet him and comfort 
him, and make him feel that he was not a “ beast.” 

“ But she’d not find any hair to stroke, now,” said Mag- 
nus Kindred, in one of these spasms. And then he caught 


76 CAMP HARD 

hold of himself again, set his teeth in his favourite fashion, 
and announced to himself that he meant to be adjutant. 

“ And I’ll not look like you, either,” he went on, apostro- 
phising Mr. Larkin, who just then came strolling by be- 
tween two admiring girls, turning from one to the other 
with much the air of the exquisite who said : 

“Really, now, you know — won’t somebody come and 
share me ? ” 

The young adjutant’s buttons were very bright, and his 
waist was very small; and the red and white (brown) of 
his complexion left nothing to be desired. If he had been 
a girl, you might have called his walk “willowy,” but I 
know not the masculine of that. And the barber had 
plainly been open to persuasion in his case, and had left 
almost a lovelock or two on the tall head. 

Magnus Kindred watched the party go by, but they 
did not see him. In one of the rocky, shady nooks on 
Flirtation, where the green leaves rustle and the river 
whispers softly to the shore, there he had hidden himself 
away with his sweet and bitter fancies. Hard, literal 
facts they were just then, for Magnus. 

The footsteps died away, and more came, quicker and 
brisker than the first; and two cadets went by his hiding 
place. Then another with his best girl (for the time 
being) ; and Magnus watched them all. As the silence fell 
again a wood thrush in the shadows behind him rang its 
liquid chime. 

Then a tall cadet with chevrons, and the dainty air and 
manner which had earned him the soubriquet of “ Gentle- 
man Joe,” passed slowly by with his mother on his arm; 
he bending down to her, and she looking up to him, while 
a little white fidget of ten years old flitted about the two. 

But when these were out of sight, then Magnus Kindred 
threw himself face down among the moss and ferns, and 
gave no further heed to outside things. 


CAMP HARD 77 

“ Oh, mother ! — and Cherry, and Violet, and Kose — 
and home ! ” It was very bitter for a while. And when 
at last, in answer to a distant drum call, Magnus roused 
himself, and got on his feet, he knew that he hated that 
drum, and all it betokened, just as hard as he could. 

Gentler thoughts came, as he mounted the hill. The 
clear notes of the thrushes were all around him, but in 
their grave sweetness there were no faltering tones; and 
while it pierced the boy’s heart it strengthened it, too. 
Yes, one day he would be the tall man with chevrons, lead- 
ing his mother along Flirtation; and she should be as 
proud of him as Mrs. Gresham was of her son. And, in- 
stead of that child in white, there would be — but here the 
drum became imperative, and Magnus stowed away all the 
rest of his thoughts, and double-timed every remaining 
step up to Camp Hard. 


X 


BAND CONCERT 

I cannot bear it any longer, said the pewter soldier as he sat on the 
drawers ; it is so lonely and melancholy here. 

— Hans Andersen. 

I T was the evening for band concert at the camp: a 
warm first of August. A red glow lingered over 
Crownest, the stars came out slowly, hazy with the 
heat; the katydids were publishing their arrival in the 
usual contradictory way. As the twilight deepened, the 
camp began to light up, and in front of the colour-line one 
especial burner shone full upon the concert programme, 
which was posted on a stick. Beyond this a small circle 
of lights marked the standing place of the band. 

Cadets were everywhere — half in a tent, or half out; 
walking, sauntering, standing, in twos and threes and 
half-dozens; some down on the grass where the lights 
shone full, and some hid away in the shadows towards Fort 
Clinton. 

Other figures were coming up, too, and dresses of every 
hue flitted across the plain. The dew lay sweet and fresh 
upon every grass-blade, but then the grass was short, and 
nobody minded dew when going to band concert. 

Often some grey uniform was escorting some dainty 
lady: these coming straight from the houses, and those 
others pausing, after a delightful tryst at Trophy Point, 
or a saunter along the upper bends of Flirtation. For, in 
those days, the concert night limits were — so far as you 
could hear and distinguish the music. 

The plebs kept together, and away from the gay throng; 
78 


BANDCONCERT 79 

unless where some especially happy boy had a cousin on 
hand. But a great event had marked that day in Camp 
Hard; for the obnoxious “grey bags” had disappeared, 
giving place to the full uniform, bell buttons and all com- 
plete; and at last the plebs looked like cadets. 

Magnus Kindred had been as jubilant as anyone over 
the change, and nobody had given a heartier parting kick 
to the grey bag. But “a competency is what a man has, 
and a little more ” — and so, then, the young man wanted 
someone to look at him. How his mother and sisters 
would have stroked the sleeve of that wonderful dress coat, 
and admired the buttons: how they would have studied 
out every turn of braid and quirl of adornment. And 
Cherry — no, they were not her little hands he seemed to 
feel on his arm : her hands were just folded in their pretty 
way, and she stood a few steps off, laughing at the others, 
and secretly admiring him. She never said so, but what 
innocent, true-hearted girl can quite keep it out of her 
eyes, when her hero stands before her? Or, if the eyes 
sometimes grew shy and turned away, the lips laughed, 
and told it still. 

“ Bless her dear heart ! ” Magnus said, almost aloud, his 
own lips parting in a smile at the sweet vision. But then 
they closed again firmer than ever. Two thousand miles 
away (it seemed five thousand to Magnus), and two whole 
years before he could go there. And a weary sigh meas- 
ured off both time and space, and found them endless. 

“Joseph,” whispered Mrs. Gresham to her son (they 
were just opposite Magnus), “who is that boy?” 

“ Kindred — fourth class.” 

“ He looks like a first-class fellow,” said Mrs. Gresham, 
watching him, as he suddenly moved off and joined the 
grey circle around the band. “ What a fine face he has ! 
I noticed him yesterday before parade.” 

“ Good fellow enough,” assented Mr. Gresham, who was 


80 


BAND CONCERT 

just then “ noticing ” the arrival of Miss Saucy. “ But 
he’s so awfully homesick. Blue as Cat’s eyes.” 

"Well, you’re not obliged to call me ‘Cat,’ sir, if you 
are a captain,” said the little girl, trying hard to make a 
pinch tell through the thick cadet cloth. “ He’s the one 
that was up among the rocks, Aunt Effie. I told you, and 
you wouldn’t look.” 

“Certainly not,” said Mrs. Gresham. “Never try to 
see anybody who does not wish to be seen, Catty.” 

Miss Catty pouted. 

“ I knew he was a cadet,” she said, “ for I saw the bell 
buttons. And I thought cadets always want to be looked 
at. They act so.” 

There was a burst of laughter from the group that had 
gathered round Mrs. Gresham. 

“ Oh, what a pity she’s not a little older ! ” cried Miss 
Flyaway. “Your mainstay ought not to graduate for six 
years to come, Mrs. Gresham, that Catty might be up to 
the situation. But then, we poor damsels would have lost 
him. So it’s best as it is. Things are generally best as 
they are.” 

“ Some few things might be improved,” said Mrs. 
Gresham quietly. “Joseph, I wish you would bring up 
Mr. Kindred, and introduce him.” 

“ Now, ma’am? ” 

“ Yes, now. We can spare you so long as that.” 

“ Oh, with the greatest pleasure ! ” cried Miss Flirt, 
making a profound courtesy; while Miss Flyaway called 
after him : “ Don’t hurry yourself, we’ll wait.” 

“ Tell him you wouldn’t go away for anything” said the 
irrepressible Catty. 

“You saucy monkey!” said Miss Flirt. “You ought 
to be in bed and asleep.” 

“ I don’t believe you were, at my age,” said Catty, with 
better logic than she knew. 


BANDCONCERT 81 

“ Hush, Catty ! ” said her aunt. “ Mr. Carr, who is that 
officer talking with Mrs. Seaton ? ” 

“ The arch-fiend, we call him/ 5 said Carr, with a laugh. 
“ He’s the professor of confusion worse confounded, Mrs. 
Gresham. Do you want him brought up, too ? ” 

“ Thank you, no: here comes Joseph. How do you do, 
Mr. Kindred ? ” And Mrs. Gresham gave Magnus a warm 
clasp of the hand that went to his heart. 

“ Come and sit here by me/ 5 she said, making room for 
Magnus. “ I suppose you enjoy these concerts very much ? 55 

“ Sometimes/ 5 Magnus answered her. “ They make a 
change. 55 

“ Why don’t you go to the hops, if you want a change ? 55 
said Catty, leaning her elbows on her aunt’s lap, and 
gazing up at the new acquaintance. Magnus laughed in 
spite of himself. 

“ How do you know but I do ? 55 he said. 

“ I never see you there when I go,” said Catty. 

“ I’ll tell you, child,” said Miss Flirt, coming to the 
rescue. “ Mr. Kindred never goes to the hops in the hop 
room, because at this time of year he has no end of hops 
outdoors.” 

Catty looked mystified. 

“I’m not talking to you,” she said, turning her back. 
“ But I never met you out walking either, Mr. Kindred. 
Don’t you ever walk with anybody but your best girl ? I 
never do, when my special cadet’s on guard.” 

Amid the little hubbub which this called forth, Mrs. 
Gresham rose up. 

“ If you will give me your arm, Mr. Kindred,” she said, 
“ I should like to walk round the camp. The lights and 
shades show so differently from different points; it is 
pleasant to watch them. I have been in Europe for three 
years, and West Point is new to me. What is the band 
playing now ? ” 


82 BANDCONCERT 

“ Fm not sure, ma’am. One of Moore’s melodies comes 
next.” 

“How lovely the shadows are! I used to be quite a 
painter in my young days,” said Mrs. Gresham as they 
strolled along. “ Is that one of your studies ? ” 

“ Not this year, ma’am. Indeed we have no real studies 
'in camp.’” 

“ But still many things that deserve the name : I under- 
stand. What do you call the hardest thing you have to 
do?” 

“ Sometimes, ' study to be quiet,’ ” said Magnus, with 
a look and tone at once so playful and so full of feeling 
that Mrs. Gresham opened her heart, and took him right 
in. 

“ Ah, yes ! ” she said, “ I can well believe it. And I am 
glad you have Bible words at hand for your hard places.” 

“ Do you care about them ? ” said Magnus quickly. “ I 
thought nobody did, here.” 

“ About Bible words ? Oh, yes they do ! ” said Mrs. 
Gresham, with her gentle smile. “ You do not know many 
people here yet, Mr. Kindred.” 

“And I am not likely to, very soon,” said Magnus. 
“But I spoke too quick. Yes, I know there are some right 
here in the Corps who care. There’s Mr. Upright of 
the first class. I do not believe he ever misses a chance 
of doing the out-and-out thing for a Christian to do. And 
Mr. True of the third, he’s another. Oh, there are a lot 
among us that know enough — if we only hold out,” he 
added soberly. 

Mrs. Gresham had listened for her son’s name, but it 
did not come. He, too, “ knew enough,” but alas ! only that 
very morning when he came in from drill, Magnus had 
heard him curse his horse, and the instructor, and the whole 
concern, in terms that would have wrung the gentle 
mother’s heart. The girls did not know, as they hung 


BAND CONCERT 


upon his arm ; the officers did not guess, seeing only the 
straight military figure and good face : only God knew, and 
the fellow-students to whom Gresham was setting his ex- 
ample. The mother felt the omission, sighed, waited, and 
sighed again; then silently locked up her fears and her 
disappointment. 

“ But you must hold out, Mr. Kindred,” she said. “ If 
you are a professing Christian, you have sworn it.” 

“ Yes, ma’am,” Magnus answered soberly, “ and I mean 
it, too. But there are harder times here than you can 
guess.” 

“ It is the pinch that shows what a man is,” said Mrs. 
Gresham. “ If you must run, run before the firing begins.” 

Magnus laughed. 

“ Fll remember,” he said. 

“But remember, too,” said Mrs. Gresham, “that here 
as everywhere else : on the Hill Difficulty of West Point, no 
less than among the Delectable Mountains at home, you 
are to be a witness for Christ.” 

“ Yes, ma’am — you would think so,” said Magnus ex- 
citedly, “and so mother thinks. But how are you going 
to do anything here? Religion don’t count, in this old 
camp.” 

“ Religion may come in and stay, even where she is not 
feted and caressed,” said Mrs. Gresham. 

“ That is true enough,” said the boy, colouring. “ All 
the same, you can’t guess, as I said, what a hard time she 
has. And now guard duty begins; and it ’ll be drill and 
walk post, walk post and drill, night and day. Your shoul- 
ders poked in, and your feet kicked out. Skinned if you 
don’t skin somebody else, and nearly skinned actually if 
you do. Told forty things a day that you don’t under- 
stand, and then given extra tours because you don’t. That’s 
what they say. Why, there are six hundred and sixty-eight 
separate regulations that we are supposed to keep ! ” 


84 


BAND CONCERT 


“ Six hundred and sixty-eight ! ” said Mrs. Gresham. 
“ Well, it must take a very lively imagination to ‘ suppose ’ 
that three hundred boys will keep six hundred and sixty- 
eight regulations.” 

“ They know we can’t do it,” said Magnus hotly. “ But 
we’re bid to, all the same. And they punish us if we 
don’t.” 

“ Good-evening, Mrs. Gresham,” said another voice, and 
Cadet Main (alias Mean) came up and shook hands. 
“ What work of charity have you in tow now ? ” 

“ Mr. Kindred has been telling me about the many regu- 
lations,” said Mrs. Gresham. 

“ Oh, regulations ! ” said Main. “ Yes, there’s quite a 
little many of ’em. Keeps a fellow busy to break ’em all; 
but some of us max it, every tiine.” 

“ Break them? You mean ‘keep them,”’ said Mrs. 
Gresham. 

“No I don’t — not I ! ” said Main, laughing. “ You’d 
better believe I don’t. Why, the only fun I have in life 
is breaking regulations.” 

“Breaking them?” repeated Mrs. Gresham, looking 
bewildered. “But you will get yourself into trouble, so, 
Mr. Main.” 

“Will, shall, have, and expect to,” said Main. “I’m 
bound to get some fun out of this old prison.” 

“ Suppose the walls open, rather suddenly, and let you 
out.” 

“ Make my best bow, and go. It ’ll be a great loss to 
the service. But you should talk to Lorenzo here, Mrs. 
Gresham ; he’s played good boy ever since he came. Regu- 
lar pet of the Com.’s, he is. Why, he won’t even help carry 
off Sammy from the Mess Hall.” 

“ And pray how comes * Sammy,’ as you call him, to 
need carrying off ? ” demanded Mrs. Gresham severely. But 
that brought such a chorus of laughter from the whole 


BANDCONCERT 85 

group of cadets (several more had gathered round), that 
Mrs. Gresham let her question drop. 

“ We’ll run it up to the hotel some day, and present him, 
Mrs. Gresham,” said Main. 

“ If you ‘ run it —to anywhere I am, I’ll not see you,” 
said the lady. 

“ Why, you cant keep all the regulations,” said Devlin. 
“ Not if you did your level best. You just have to break 
them.” 

“ Then what is it all for — this Blue Book you tell of ? ” 

“ Light reading for the Academic Board,” suggested 
Mr. Sharpless. 

“ Skinning made easy,” said Main. “ Every new Tac 
makes a new rule and tacks it on. They’ll bring it up to 
a thousand presently.” 

They had made the circuit of the camp, and now came 
round once more to the open space before the lights, with 
its shadowy border where the motley groups paused, moved 
on, went in and out. The camp points of flame flickered, 
and peered into the dusk; contesting now with a nobler 
light their right of search. For in the east the moon was 
rising ; lifting her fair face above the hilltops, and pouring 
a flood of summer glory over river and plain. 

“ J ust so she will be rising at home,” Magnus thought. 
“ With the girls all sitting on the steps, and mother in her 
rocking chair in the porch.” 

It is well for the homesick cadet that his surroundings 
are so fine, beguiling him with their beauty ; but it is also 
a good thing that he never can do much “ mooning” at 
once. Before Magnus had got to the middle of his third 
sigh came the sharp voice of the drum, calling him to order. 
And yet “ sharp ” is hardly the word ; only neglected duty 
takes on that tone, but the drum-call was brisk, imperative, 
unmistakable. Yet fine, as well, and stirring; as duty at- 
tended to always is. 


86 


BAND CONCERT 


It was pretty to see the grey and white figures coming 
out from the dusky shadows among the trees, and crossing 
to the tents. Some at a quick run, others slowly, as under 
protest : here and there one very lingeringly, with many a 
backward look and farewell word, to some white-robed 
vision that shewed angelic in the uncertain light. 

Meanwhile, the racket of drum and fife filled all the air, 
rattling up and down the company streets. The crowd 
scattered, the band tramped off; and still here and there 
a tardy cadet came hurrying in, but only in time to get 
a cold “ late ” or “ absence.” 

“ Oh, it is such fun to make them run ! ” said one fair 
creature delightedly. “ I just kept Mr. Dunkirk fooling 
along after the first drum; and there he goes, for all he 
is worth.” 

“ Too late ? ” queried a quiet lady in a dark dress. 

“ Not too late to get to bed,” said Miss Saucy. “ They 
won’t make him walk post to-night, poor boy. But he’ll be 
on the black list to-morrow.” 

“ Then you won’t have him to walk with on Saturday,” 
said another girl. 

“ Have somebody else, ma chere. One gets tired of the 
same man too often. If I didn’t trip him up now and 
then I should die of a surfeit of honey, and never have a 
chance at treacle and lumps of sugar.” 

“ But do you mean to say,” said the lady in black, “ do 
you really mean to say that you get these young men into 
difficulty wilfully ? That you are responsible for their be- 
ing late ? ” 

“ Well, I do everything wilfully,” said the girl — “ and 
I am never responsible for anything. So I don’t know 
how you’ll fix it.” 

“ I shall tell the Commandant to-morrow ! ” said the lady 
excitedly. 

" No good.” said the girl. “ He can’t skin me — and he 


BANDCONCERT 87 

will skin him. It don’t hurt much: he don’t care. Says 
he don’t.” 

“ He ought to care ! ” 

"Very likely he ought/’ said Miss Saucy. "Oh, he’s 
not absolute perfection — won’t be canonised till he’s dead, 
I dare say.” 


XI 


ON GUARD 


Twelve small strokes on the tinkling bell ; 
Midnight comes, and all is well ! 


—Culprit Fay. 



ES, with the new uniform came also new work, as 


Magnus had been warned. Guard duty put in its 


A claim, and the plebs were promoted to walk post, 
and to learn what upper classmen could do to make that 
duty unpleasant. “ Jumping plebs” went on with varia- 
tions. “ Crawling ” seems to be the favourite word now, 
but probably the thing itself is not much slower than it was 
of yore. 

The first night on guard was a never-to-be-forgotten 
thing to Magnus Kindred. 

It was a quiet night enough, so far as disturbances went, 
for this time the tide of mischief seemed to set in some 
other direction. But that only left the power of the night 
itself unchecked. So still, so solemn, so sweet, and yet with 
such a bitter flavour. Strange beyond description, and 
beautiful past all telling. 

Charlemagne had gone on with the second relief, tattoo 
had beat, and taps had said its closing word; and now all 
private lights were out. The day had been hot, but the 
night came down dewy and cool; and the full summer 
moon was slowly flooding the world with glory, and lining 
out everything in clear black and white. 

Every tent wall was raised to let in the air. The pros- 
trate men on the floors were as still as the white canvas 
above their heads. Sleeping off drills and difficulties here, 


88 


ON GUARD 89 

and there plotting and planning; or perhaps gazing out 
into the night with wide-open, homesick eyes. 

A faint breath stirred the trees around Camp Hard ; from 
across the plain one could just catch the sound of slow 
footsteps, where the enlisted sentry paced up and down 
the Officers’ Row. Far below, on the river, boats went and 
came : a sloop, dreaming noiselessly along on the incoming 
tide; or two steamers, signalling before they met. You 
could hear the dash of the swell upon the shore, and the 
panting breath of the fierce little tugs, with the more 
stately beat of the paddles of a side-wheeler. Over all, 
the moon rode high and clear. 

And, for this night, the Western pleb was unmolested. 
Not a stray ghost crossed his beat. Up and down, up and 
down, in company with his shadow, the slow, measured 
step leaving his thoughts free : and they had all gone home. 
And so it was, that by degrees Magnus Kindred fell into 
one of his desperate fits of lonely homesickness, ready to 
fire off his musket, or do any lawless thing, if only so he 
might be arrested and dismissed to freedom, mother, and 
the girls. And on post you cannot throw your arms into 
the air and yourself down on the ground; not get even the 
smallest bit of any such slight relief. 

As Magnus turned on his beat, pacing now towards the 
western hills, the exceeding beauty of the bit of star-span- 
gled sky to the north was full in view. The Great Bear 
and his associates held on their shining way, despite the 
moon, calm, high, lifted above all of earth’s tears and tur- 
moils. What was that his mother used to sing ? 

** Ye stars are but the shining dust 
Of my divine abode ; 

The pavement of those heavenly courts 
Where I shall see my God." 

Magnus remembered with another of his sharp twinges. 

« All right for her ! ” he thought, pacing back again to 


90 ONGUARD 

meet the moon. “ all right for them all ! But the folks that 
tread those pavements have gotten the victory. 

“ I do not think, myself,” Cadet Kindred went on can- 
didly, eyeing the stars once more, “ that I am fighting for 
it hard enough to hurt, just at present. ‘ Gotten the vic- 
tory/ ” he repeated to himself, “ won it, and kept it.” 

The dear folks at home might not even be thinking of 
him, just then; they were doubtless all peacefully asleep, 
each having laid down her heart’s desire at the feet of 
Him “that keepeth Israel,” so leaving the far-off young 
sentinel in His tender care. But Magnus knew, almost 
as if he had heard them, the prayers sent up for him 
that night. 

A sharp, resonant cry brought him suddenly back to 
Camp Hard and duty. From the post in front of the 
camp the sentinel gave the hour. 

“ Number One ! Half-past ten o’clock and all’s — well ! ” 

Then it came to Magnus. 

Now the guard had been admonished, that very day, not 
to mumble the words, but to give each its full value, clear 
and strong. But this first man was sleepy, or lazy, and 
gave small heed to the order. His “ All’s well ! ” was loud 
enough, but seemed rather a matter of hope than of cer- 
tainty. 

I am not sure that Magnus even supposed that he him- 
self was working out the spirit of the order, but he was 
homesick and disheartened, as well as ignorant of mili- 
tary affairs; and with that a little bit reckless, and ready 
to do anything for a change. What did it matter, anyhow ? 
And so, as it came to his turn, he shouted forth the call 
at the top of his voice, and to the closing notes of the 
retreat bugle call at parade. 



Num-ber two: Half-past ten o’-clock,and all is well! 


ON GUARD 


91 


And half the camp heard it. 

Of course there was a stir, and Magnus was reported 
for “calling the hour in an improper manner/’ But he 
went scot-free, after all, by reason, doubtless, of his short 
acquaintance with guard duty. 


XII 


OFF GUARD 

Are you shining for Jesus loyally, 

Shining just anywhere ; 

Not only in easy places, 

Not only just here and there ? 

— F. R. Havergal. 

I N such fashion days and weeks rolled by; as time- 
wheels will, over the roughest ground, and through 
the most uninteresting country. For without doubt, 
drills can become monotonous; and if the body yielded 
itself more and more easily to regulations, as the time 
went on, so did not always the mind. 

At first, in the strangeness of everything, details went 
for less, but now that he no longer wore the grey bag, to 
have his toes still kicked out set his blood tingling. He 
was so well made by nature, that “this extra regulation 
ramrod style,” as he spitefully termed it, seemed like 
persecution. For some of the drill masters by no 
means slackened their demands as the need of them grew 
less. 

“ Get your shoulders back, Mr. Kindred ! ” 

“ Get them back, sir ! ” 

“ Get them back! ” 

“ He had better take a sledge hammer and pound them 
in,” Magnus declared one day. 

“ You’ll be pounded for disrespect,” Rig warned 
him. 

“ All right ; it’s a true bill. I don’t respect that man, 
and I never shall.” 


92 


98 


OFF GUARD 

“But officers, you know,” suggested Rig. 

“ Oh, officers ! ” said Magnus loftily. “ What business 
has he to be an officer, with the manners of a boot- 
black?” 

However, as I Said, time did wear on; with parades, 
drills, gymnastics, and the rest of it. And in the intervals, 
when upper classmen walked with the pretty girls, and 
went to teas and picnics, the plebs drew together and eyed 
them from a distance, making many comments, uttering 
many groans ; but, most of all, knitting up firm and strong 
the class bond which no after-years could break. 

This class bond is a most natural thing among boys who 
have faced hardships side by side ; and in a way, it is very 
fine ; but it has its danger, too. 

The stand taken by each one in the class for and with 
each other one, in those first hard weeks when they feel 
as if every man’s hand was against them all, sometimes 
passes into a “ Stand by the class ! ” which cramps the in- 
fluence, and hinders the action of many an individual 
man. “ The class, right or wrong ! ” is never a safe 
motto. 

One other little event in camp life that summer may 
be told over here, for its after-effect upon Magnus 
Kindred. 

There were two or three men in the pleb class who, by 
reason of a certain offhand brightness of thought and 
tongue, had more influence with the rest than they de- 
served, for either their principles or their brains. Men 
able to put the wrong thing into such brilliant words, that 
the real meaning was lost sight of in the fun and the 
glitter. And so, in the scarcity of amusements, Magnus 
fell into the habit of lingering where they stood; listening 
to their sayings, laughing at their sallies, and, to a certain 
degree, following their lead. And, as often happens, the 
light words, the smart speeches which were not true, won 


94 


OFF GUARD 


their way. He began to hearken more readily, and more 
easily lent himself to plans and projects he might better 
have let alone; getting into the swirl of a current not 
likely to land him on any good and fruitful shore. 

And then, as birds of a feather are apt to find each other 
out, some men of like tendencies in the first class made 
common cause, in a way ; finding an admiring look of any 
sort quite pleasant, and 'a pleb a convenient catspaw, now 
and then. They made the musical ones come in for a 
chorus ; and under such innocent cover matured their plans, 
and told their stories, to nobody’s good. 

If one of these wits set forth the fact that “ Muffti ” 
was sure to lead the prayer meeting that night, Magnus 
would perhaps stay in his tent, or wander off beyond sound 
of the hymns, which always pricked his conscience and his 
heart as well. Or if some smart man made fun of the 
preacher who was to fill the chaplain’s place during the 
summer vacation, Magnus was careful the next Sunday 
to practise himself in the fine art of sitting bolt upright 
when fast asleep. He grew to be an expert at smuggling 
in “ boodle ” : he took the loan of books he had much better 
have let alone. 

“ Come round to my tent after dinner, Mr. Kindred,” 
said Cadet Upright one day; and of course Magnus went; 
then stood attention in the straightest sort of way; very 
much wondering for what unknown breach of rules he was 
to be called to account by the first Captain. 

So he stood up to all his inches, just within the tent 
door, while Cadet Captain Upright sat on a camp stool 
facing him; a stray sunbeam working its way in to touch 
the chevrons, and lighting up the honest, sunburnt face. 
Mr. Upright was no beauty, but not a man in the Corps 
was more thoroughly respected than he. “Not much to 
look at,” said Sam Weller of his hat, “but it’s an aston- 
ishin’ ’un to wear ! ” 


OFF GUARD 95 

" Mr. Kindred,” began Upright, " I asked you to come, 
because I wanted to talk to you.” 

He paused, and Magnus responded, " Yes, sir.” 

"You are in danger,” Upright went on. "You are 
taking risks no wise man will shoulder.” 

" What have I done, sir ? ” Magnus demanded, stiffening 
slightly. 

"Nothing special, to my knowledge,” said the first 
captain, " But I see you in slippery places, where sooner 
or later a man must go down. And the mud often sticks 
for a good while to come, even after — and even if — he 
picks himself up . and gets away.” 

"I don’t see, sir,” Magnus began — "what risks are 
you talking of, Mr. Upright? ” 

" The risk of being false to yourself, and to your Chris- 
tian pledge and name ; the risk of (practically) forgetting 
your mother and your mother’s words.” 

But now Magnus burst forth. 

" Forgetting my mother ! ” he said. Then checking him- 
self: 

" Oh, well, sir, that proves you never saw her, Mr. Up- 
right.” 

Upright laughed, and his eyes shone. 

" Good for you ! ” he said heartily. " But, Mr. Kindred, 
you are training with the wrong crowd.” 

And now Magnus coloured, and his eyes went down. 
Upright watched him for a moment in silence; then he 
took up a slip of paper, and held it out. 

"Here is a reminding text I wrote off for you,” he 
said. " Take it with you up and down the post. ‘ He 
setteth a print on the heels of my feet.’ That will do, 
sir,” and Magnus saluted, and whirled away. 

" Might be the Com. himself, for the style he talks ! ” 
he grumbled, under his breath. But all the same, the 
words sank in. They were too true to miss a hearing, 


96 OFF GUARD 

on the one side, and had been too kindly spoken to lose 
it, on the other. Yes, he was training with the wrong 
crowd, there was no doubt of that. 

Magnus winced under the confession. There was no 
one he so little liked to find fault with as himself, and to 
court-martial Cadet Kindred, on his own knowledge and 
belief, was extremely unpleasant. 

But the finding of the Court is rarely severe in such 
cases ; and Magnus presently let himself off with a few ad- 
monitions to be more careful. He went to prayer meeting 
regularly, boned discipline a little, and kept away from 
that crowd (what he called) “ all he could.” 

Then they broke camp, and marched into barracks, and 
that was a help, for work began at a rate that left scant 
time for lawless play. Magnus Kindred had studied 
before, studied hard, but never with the exactness of drill 
and discipline and pressure that now filled every day. 
Breakfast, recitation, study, dinner, study, recitation, 
drill; then dress parade, supper, and study. Some of 
the plebs resigned and went home, others talked gloomily 
of being “ found” in January; before which wintry fear 
homesickness itself gave way. And again others drew 
the buckles of their armour tight, looked well to their 
stirrups, and went at the difficulties, lance in rest. 





























































































THE BARRACKS IN WINTER 






XIII 


A BLUE CHRISTMAS 

No age, no race, no single soul, 

By lofty tumbling wins the goal. 

The steady pace it keeps between ; 

The little points it makes unseen ; 

By these, achieved in gathering might, 

It moveth on, and out of sight : 

And wins, through all that’s overpast, 

The city of its hopes at last. 

— Mbs. Whitney. 

O F these true knights Charlemagne Kindred was 
one. Lessons, problems, questions, went down 
before his fierce assault. He had never enjoyed 
being headed off in what he chose to do; and had pledged 
it to himself that if ever anything did that kind office for 
him, it should not be West Point. 

“You stop me?” he would say to some particularly 
obnoxious book. “You get in my way?” and probably 
the hard-headed volume would then and there find itself 
pitched to the furthest corner of the room. But after 
that little expression of opinion, Magnus would pick the 
book up, and bone with all his might. Smith’s “ Conic 
Sections” got quite used to such short excursions, and 
Ketel’s “ French Grammar ” grew old before its time. 

Rig’s method was different. 

“ Kin, I’m growing grey,” he said plaintively one 
morning. 

“ Grey as a goose.” 

“No, but really,” said Rig, laying down the book. 
“ This thing’s too hard, you know. Breaks a man all up.” 
97 


98 A BLUE CHRISTMAS 

“ You’d best stick yourself together again before two 
o’clock,” said Magnus. 

“No good,” said Rig, taking up another study volume 
from the heap. “ I’ll try this a while. Nobody ought to 
be expected to learn such stuff.” 

“ Put that book down ! ” Magnus thundered at him, 
from his own corner. 

“ Oh, I can put it down easy enough,” Rig said rather 
sulkily. “ But I can’t see what business it is of yours.” 

“ Now fold your hands, and spell zero ten times back- 
wards,” said Magnus, “and then take your Davies, and 
go to work. Unless you want to fess solid for the rest of 
your life.” 

“ Well — Say, Kin, — what a good fellow Mr. Upright is.” 

“Mr. Upright’s a cold max. Mind your business.” 

Pushing and pulling did a good deal for Rig that 
winter. There was a little stir about the holidays, when 
the happy upper classmen who had won their Christmas 
leave went off for unlimited bliss in a limited time, and 
those who had lost it abused “ luck.” And there was also 
the mild interest of a better dinner than usual. But to 
the plebs, for whom no getting away was possible, and to 
whom no Point festivities were open, that first Christmas 
was a thing to live through as best they might. I think 
some of them despised even the dinner, with the flavour 
of their mother’s cookery yet lingering and fresh. 

How hard it was ! “ The most miserable day they ever 
spent,” as many a one has said since. And the letters 
and home trifles that arrived in the mail bag were not 
much help in the line of bracing up. Magnus put 
Cherry’s bookmark in his Bible, and his mother’s picture 
up his sleeve ; while the toilet cushion and cover on which 
the two girls had bestowed so many loving looks, as they 
wrought out the pretty devices, were hid away in his 
clothes bag ; no such decorations being allowed in barracks. 


A BLUE CHRISTMAS 99 

Then he wrote letters to them all, then he tried to 
study, but who can study on a legal holiday? 

So at last Cadet Kindred donned his grey fearnaught, 
wandered down among the rocks and snow-drifts on Flir- 
tation, and listened to the grinding of the ice cakes in 
the dark river. The sky, blue with an unearthly far-away 
depth of colour, was pushed back by the whitened hills: 
all nature seemed locked up and unapproachable and 
unsympathising. 

“ Those fair blue heavens so distant are, 

Their very clearness seems to say 
How far, how far ! 

They lie above man’s stormy way.” 

And Magnus Kindred felt as desperately lonesome as 
he thought it was in the power of man to be. 

There were no loiterers now under the “ Kissing 
Rock ” ; no echoing steps within “ First-class Cave ” ; all 
the old seats tnd trysting places were snow capped and 
silent. Even the broad folds of the Post flag would have 
been some company, a little cheer to his sad eyes as he 
once more came out upon the plain. But the Post flag 
was safely folded away; and only a wee, wintry looking 
storm flag, whipped out in many a past gale, was abroad 
to brave the keen-edged airs that stirred round Trophy 
Point. Could anything exceed the dreariness and length 
of that wretched Christmas Day? 

Then such cake for tea — though I doubt if Purcell’s 
best would have suited Magnus that night. He was glad 
when the drummers began their noisy tattoo, that he 
might unroll his mattress, go to bed, and forget his 
misery. 

New Year’s Day was not quite so bad, perhaps because 
the coming examination lent at least a dash of red pepper 
to the monotony, and the first evening of the new year 
was full of study and talk, questions, fears, and surmis- 


l.of C. 


100 


A BLUE CHRISTMAS 


ings. Blue letters home went off in troops, and many 
a man arranged definitely just what he would do after he 
was “ found/’ of which last fact he felt sure. With the 
great hop that graced this week, or the gay damsels who 
graced the hop, the fourth class had nothing to do. 

It was natural enough that the strain and fatigue of 
the examination should be followed by a certain dislike 
for work at all. The men who were “ found” had van- 
ished; the men who had gone up a section were quietly 
in place, while others had as quietly joined “the Im- 
mortals,” a better name than its popular substitute. And 
from now on until J une, things would remain pretty much 
as they were. 

No wonder, then, if the reaction set in strong. Snow 
blocked the favourite cadet walks; permits for skating 
were cut. No parades, no stirring drills, except in the 
riding-hall, and the plebs had no good of them. 

Then there were stormy days when even the officers’ 
row was gloomy, and things grew very tame indeed. The 
bent bows ached to spring back, and the pent-up steam 
was ready to blow off in any direction; for mischief at 
least makes a change, and to break regulations and not 
be found out, gave life a certain flavour. It was a pity, 
but not at all strange. 

And so, in some parts of the barracks, license, not 
liberty, was the popular word. The great point of interest 
by day and by night being how to defy the blue book, and 
not get caught. 

The leaders were bright men, some of them ; personable, 
pleasant to talk to, fair mathematicians, and capital cooks 
over the gas-light. Several had friends who sent them 
money, sweets, mince pies, and tobacco: all smuggled in 
by unscrupulous outside hands. And these dainties were 
freely dispensed by the happy owners. 

As to the rest, they were light fingered enough for pick- 


A BLUE CHRISTMAS 101 

pockets, and could abstract and convey to barracks any- 
thing — except “ Sammy ” — from the Mess Hall table; and 
I have even been told that this one exception lost its place 
that year. 

But so far, you could charge things pretty fairly upon 
fun, and the delightful exercise of skill. If, as was al- 
leged, they carried off two pounds of sugar for every 
lemon they got hold of, still, one must do something; and 
as they said, “ the sugar was all paid for out of their own 
allowance.” 

A much graver thing — perhaps the worst in the whole 
business — was the bribing enlisted men. Some free 
lances, indeed, were much too fond of “ chancing ” it, to 
do their frisky deeds by proxy. They fetched for them- 
selves what they wanted, with a daring of which I may 
not tell. But others would get the sentry at the gate to 
pass things in ; or a bandsman to bring all sorts of contra- 
band goods from the Falls. Other people helped, but a 
Mess Hall waiter could only lose his place and run away, 
while the sentinels were in trust. 

Now Magnus Kindred had not been so brought up, and 
the sight and hearing of certain things at first made 
him indignant. But they looked lighter coloured the 
fifteenth time than the first. The memory of Mr. Up- 
right’s words also faded out, and when springtime came, 
and days grew long and nights were bright, he had fallen 
back into much the old way, and was training with (or 
training) the wrong crowd. And he was so agile and 
wary that he never got caught, which was perhaps his 
loss. 

“I don’t see how you work it, Kin,” Rig complained 
one day. " You do everything you have a mind to, and 
yet even Towser will swear you in for sweet cream every 
time. But as for me, if both my shoe toes aren’t blacked 
exactly alike, I’m skinned to a certainty.” 


102 


A BLUE CHRISTMAS 

I am not sure that Magnus relished the compliment, — 
one has a choice about praise, — but he made no answer, and 
did not change his too successful ways. 

And thus that pleb winter did much work for him in 
more lines than one. For you cannot keep hard at hard 
studies, as he did, without a swift and increasing rate of 
progress; the Hill Difficulty of West Point, as Mrs. 
Gresham had called it, yielded better and better footing, 
week by week. But alas, it is also true that you cannot 
constantly fling even small stones at the law, without 
that fine pillar of strength’s being chipped and frayed, 
and in a sort defaced. Magnus Kindred did not call 
his doings by any such dignified name, but all the same, 
freedom and lawlessness were getting very much mixed in 
his mind. While the right of the authorities to com- 
mand, and his own right to disobey, were in a worse 
tangle still. The wise, dignified, and wholesome rule of 
“ Honour to whom honour, fear to whom fear,” was much 
dethroned in those days. 

So the course of the days and the drift of the ways 
went on. Winter slid early into spring. Company drills 
began, and the full tide of everything set in, especially 
walks. Bright parasols appeared on the sidewalk, and the 
old seat at Gee’s Point once more received its guests. 

A general stir of preparation was in the air; grass was 
dressed, branches trimmed, and rubbish burned. Clean- 
ing house was on hand, and dressmakers ; and always 
drills, drills, drills. To the Post in general, these signs 
meant the coming of the Board of Visitors, and all the 
whirl of examination week: but to the cadets, chiefly 
June. 

All that spring, in spite of much work, Magnus Kin- 
dred wrote home very regularly; long, amusing letters. 
Telling less of his inner life than the hearts at home would 
have liked; but the strangeness of what he said of the 


A BLUE CHRISTMAS 103 

outer partly covered this up. And I doubt whether 
Magnus knew how little he told. 

Of one thing, however, he was dimly conscious. At 
first, his mother’s expressions of trust and hope, given in 
Bible words or her own, had been a comfort and help to 
him; they seemed to bring her nearer and to make him 
stronger. But of late he had been often inclined to slur 
over those parts of her letters, and to hurry on “to get 
the news first” — as he put it to himself. He never 
stopped to ask why; and it was again Mr. Upright who 
opened his eyes, and showed him how quietly they had 
been closing and falling asleep. 

There are tears as well as smiles, on that fateful day 
in June. Here is a mother, who, having had her son 
within easy reach for the last four years, knows that now, 
after the short graduation leave, he will be whirled away 
beyond her ken. To Barrancas, it may be, or Huachuca, 
or Indian Territory. So the mother breaks down and 
cries visibly. 

And here are roommates, who have stood shoulder to 
shoulder in all sorts of hardships, now henceforth, until 
they are grey haired men, to live as far apart as this 
broad country can put them; and it is a sobering thought. 

Then, this pretty, timid girl, who has ventured her 
heart on the insecure ground of cadet soft speeches; or 
thought out her wedding dress after one particular walk 
around Flirtation; or tried the class ring on one of her 
own slender fingers, without being asked to keep it there. 

“ Oh, it is too dreadful ! ” she cries, stamping her little 
foot, and with the tears all ready, when that heartless 
band fall off into “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” “I 
can not see what they find in that old tune.” 

It goes hard with her, sometimes, poor child, in matter 
of health. 

And sometimes a like hope is laid down with the grey, 


104 A BLUE CHRISTMAS 

and the blue must seek another charmer; and earth is — 
henceforth and comparatively — a desert. All sorts of 
things happen at graduation; and when you hear an 
eager, “You will be sure to come hack in August,” it 
does not follow that he will, or that she will wait for him 
if he does. 

But there was no shallow sentiment about Mr. Upright. 
On the day of his graduation, the young first captain, 
having put off his cadet honours and come out in plain 
“cits,” went down to the Mess Hall dinner to look 
round the old place once more, and to speak farewell 
words to his own company and the Corps. Magnus 
Kindred caught his eye and smile, and started a yell for 
Mr. Upright, which quite cut short that young man’s 
power to say much; but every word had the resonance of 
true metal. 

“ ‘ Quit you like men ! be strong.’ ‘ Strong in the Lord, 
and in the power of his might,’ ” he said ; vainly trying 
to shake all the hands held out to him. But if the tones 
faltered, the meaning was full strung, and Magnus once 
more opened his eyes, and looked at himself and his 
doings. And the more he looked, the less he liked it. 

It was a good day for feeling blue. The sudden quiet, 
the cut-down numbers; envy of the furlough men, and to 
a degree, of the graduates, made men restless and dull. 
No drill, no parade, and not even “ a plank ” left of the 
Board of Visitors. Not even many girls to look at; for 
half the Post, and three-tenths of the visitors, had sailed 
away with the gay throng on the down boat, and candi- 
dates swarmed everywhere. 

Magnus Kindred strolled off by himself to the river 
edge, sat down and looked himself over. 

“ Absolutely getting used to things ! ” he confided to 
his favourite oaks and cedars. And then he began to see 
what was the character of those things. Of course, a boy 


A BLUE CHRISTMAS 105 

could not grow up anywhere, alas ! in this poor world, and 
not now and then hear men swear; but oaths from his 
comrades had at first shocked him exceedingly. There 
was one man, for instance, who for a low mark in the 
section room, a bad ride, a rainy Saturday, would have 
his mouth so full of cursing that it seemed hard to get it 
all out. He lived near Magnus ; and many a time had the 
boy secretly stopped his ears to shut out the terrible words. 
Rig said the air was “ blue ” with them. 

But quick and keen it came to Magnus now, that he 
had long ceased to take any such precautions. Ah! only 
last night, after the reading of the black list, he had 
wondered idly to himself., whether Carr would find some- 
thing new to say. 

Some hot, unwonted tears sprang up at that, with some 
very pricking thoughts of the four pure hearts at home 
keeping watch for him. And the thoughts grew and piled 
up, and sharpened their edges. 

I should have said that when the new cadet officers were 
read out on Graduation Day, Magnus found himself pro- 
moted to the rank of corporal. Soon after this the Corps 
went into camp. 


XIV 


CAMP GOLIGHTLY 

As ’twixt the silences, now fur, now nigh, 

Rings the sharp challenge, hums the low reply. 

—Biglow Papers. 

Y EARLING CAMP was wonderfully unlike the 
dreary pleb camp of a year ago. The special 
hazers, drill masters, and tormentors of last year 
were gone away on furlough, or gone for good, and there 
was a new first class to take the lead. And if everyone was 
sorry to lose Mr. Upright, “ many a dry eye followed ” Mr. 
Devlin and Mr. Prank. 

Now the yearlings threw off their reserve, came out of 
hiding, and were introduced to the ladies. Some wore 
chevrons, some were drill masters, some frequented the 
hops, and almost all of them learned to play the cavalier 
and to win fair companions for walks before breakfast and 
after drill; for band practice, for band concert, and the 
delightful wanderings on 0. G. P. The long winter 
months of work were in the dim distance, the next big 
milestone was marked furlough, and at hand were summer 
and the summer girl. Sisters came, and cousins; intro- 
ductions were many, flirtations not a few. 

“ IPs the most delicious place ! 99 cried Nina Dangleum 
one day. “ You are always falling in love, and it never 
comes to anything.” 

It was not to be supposed that amid such breezes Magnus 
Kindred could keep himself unfanned. To give him 
his due, he had no particular taste for flirting, and did not 
often mean it ; he was too earnest a fellow to like half-way 
ioa 


CAMP GOLIGHTLY 107 

measures, or to go into anything only skin-deep. And I 
think his own blessed cluster of womankind at home had 
set the standard too high for him to enjoy drawing a girl 
on to be silly, even if it was amusing to see. He had also 
not much taste for talking unmitigated stuff, or much 
knack at doing it, and at this time of his existence would 
have nearly endorsed Mr. Weller’s words : 

“Wot’s the use o’ calling a young ’ooman a Wenus? 
Just as well call her a griffin, or a king’s arms.” 

But the gales that stirred about West Point just then 
were very perfume-laden; and almost any woman might 
seem like an angel, when you first come out of the double 
shadow of pleb year and barracks, where tactical officers 
were your chief glimpses of the outside world. 

The soft, “ Mr. Kindred, I saw you coming clear across 
the plain,” smoothed down very pleasantly the plumage 
which had been so roughly stroked the wrong way. The 
“Tac” might have reported those very bell buttons that 
very day as in need of rubbing up; but if Miss Flyaway 
could see them as soon as the man left camp, you perceive 
it took off the effect. 

In matters of discipline, however, and of military pre- 
cision Magnus was, on the whole, a careful fellow (Rig 
spelled it “ lucky”), and so when other men had their 
freedom tied up, he was often detailed to walk with 
the friend or the cousin and give her “a good time.” 
Thus he came in for rather more than his share of sweets. 

It was charming to wander almost anywhere in those 
fair days, and well nigh as good to lie in the shadow of 
the trees about Fort Clinton, with a book or without. The 
“ without” was Rig’s style. 

“ Kin — I’m no end comfortable ! ” he declared one day, 
lying back on the green with his arms above his head. 

“Same at same,” responded Magnus, from behind his 
home newspaper. Rig suddenly sat up. 


108 


CAMP GO LIGHTLY 

“ Say, Kin, I want to go to artillery drill to-morrow 
night as chief of caissons.” 

“ All right. If you’re detailed for guard, shall I take 
the girl?” 

“ Steady ! ” 

But after all, so it fell out; and when the Band concert 
began, Magnus escorted Miss Dangleum through the shad- 
ows to where the light battery guns stood ready, helped 
her to mount a caisson, and was in close attendance till the 
drum beat. One of these old caissons was quite a favourite 
“box” with the girls. 

“ Beastly ! ” Rig declared it all, when he came off guard 
next day. 

“I saw him having the spooniest sort of a time,” said 
Randolph maliciously. “ Chappy and the Kitten were on 
the next gun. I say, I’m tired walking post. I’m going 
to bone colours.” 

“ Go in and win,” Magnus admonished him. 

“ Well, you’ll see,” said Randolph. And to be sure, 
such a polishing of buttons, and rubbing up of arms, as 
followed were unknown before in Randolph’s tent. Mag- 
nus declared that the buttons made him wink clear across 
A Company Street. 

Just at the last possible moment before the critical 
guard-mounting, Randolph rushed in upon his two friends. 

“ Say, boys, lend me a pair of white trousers. I can’t 
find any of mine that are fit to go with my buttons.” 

“ Well, I’ve only one pair fit to go with mine,” said 
Magnus. “ Sorry ! but they’d be too long for you.” 

“Rig’s will do,” said Randolph, making a dash at the 
pile of trousers. “ Thanks awfully. My, how they shine ! ” 

Well, they certainly did. Spotless, unwrinkled, as if 
they, too, had been “ boning ” colours. Randolph marched 
out on higher heels than those prescribed in the regula- 
tions, and later on presented himself fearlessly as a candi- 





















































































































































THE COLOR GUARD 


/ 



CAMP GOLIGHTLY 


109 


date for honours. And the inspecting officer’s face seemed 
to say he had reason; Randolph could see approval in 
every look and gesture. Gloves, buttons, gun were scru- 
tinised; the trousers were dazzling and smooth. Then 
the officer passed round for a back view. Hair right length, 
collar right height above the grey, belt and buttons ad- 
justed to a nicety. 

“Mr. Randolph,” said the cadet adjutant, as he came 
round in front, “ I would have given you colours but for 
those trousers.” 

And when Randolph got in and scrutinised himself he 
found that the borrowed trousers were deeply frayed at 
the ankle ! After which the young man professed himself 
blue and bored. 

“ J ust my luck,” he said. “ But I’ll get even with him, 
see if I don’t. They were only fringed behind.” 

Two or three days after this, Randolph accosted Magnus. 

“ Say, Kin, want some fun ? Like to see Coxy scared 
within an inch of his life ? ” 

“No sort of objection on my part; rather B. J. in you 
to propose it.” 

“It’s more than propose,” said Randolph. “Just you 
hang round my tent about nine o’clock.” 

Then after supper Randolph took his stand at the foot 
of A Company Street, where the plebs were busily going 
back and forth between the hydrant and the tents. 

“ Mr. Johnson ! ” he .said, hailing a D Company pleb, 
but keeping his voice well down. 

“Yes, sir.” 

The pleb slackened his pace a little, but did not look 
round, and Randolph stood glancing carelessly about, as if 
thinking of nothing in particular. 

“ When you have carried in that pail come at once to the 
darkened tent at the head of the street.” 

“ Yes, sir.” 


110 


CAMP GOLIGHTLY 


“ What is your name, sir ? ” to another. 

“Mr. Ummerstot, sir.” 

“Mr. Upstart! I would like to know, Mr. Upstart, if 
you have no superior whose pail needs filling as well as 
your own ? Go home at once, and then report at my tent. 
The one with no light in it.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

When six more were under orders, Randolph strolled 
back to the front of his tent, and as fast as the plebs came 
up, he passed them in. They might stand at ease, but 
must not talk above a whisper. When they were all in 
hiding, Randolph spoke through the closed door of the tent. 

“ Mr. J ohnson ! ” in a low undertone. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Your special technical name for this evening is Hip- 
potherium. Do you hive it ? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ Mr. Upstart ! Your special name till tattoo is Semno - 
pithereus !’ 

“Mr. Parboil!” 

“Mr. Carboil, sir,” said the poor pleb, with a mild 
preference for his own name. 

“I said Parboil . Your name will be Cereopithereus. 
Mr. Cereopithereus, you are first cousin to Mr. Semnopi- 
thereus, and according to Darwin, you each bear the same 
relation to a man that a pleb does to his superiors.” 

So the eight names were given, and then Randolph be- 
gan again : 

“Mr. Ichthyosaurus, you and your fellow animals will 
answer to your special technical names at roll call, by a 
growl. You, sir, are an extinct reptile. Did you ever hear 
an extinct reptile growl ? ” 

“ No, sir.” 

“ You other animals, stop that unseemly snicker. Where 
have you lived, sir, all your life to know so little ? ” 


Ill 


CAMP GOLIGHTLY 

"In Massachusetts, sir.” 

" The very headquarters of fossil life. Well, sir, if you 
have any imagination at all, growl as nearly as you can 
in the hypothetical voice of that extinct reptile called an 
Ichthyosaurus.” 

A low growl, ending in a suppressed chuckle. 

" Order there, in the zoological museum ! Mr. Hippo- 
therium ! ” and another growl followed in a different key. 

"How,” said Randolph, when the roll had been gone 
through, "the countersign is: e Here comes the unsus- 
pecting stranger ! ? Do you understand ? ” 

The painful general growl that answered him was cut 
short by a smothered laugh. 

"Attention! When you hear the countersign and see 
the tent flap lifted you are to growl all together, with your 
deepest and heaviest roar.” 

A few minutes passed silently by. Randolph loitered 
about near the tent, as one might do who found the 
evening air refreshing. Then suddenly Adjutant Cox 
passed down the colour line. 

" Say, Cox,” Randolph hailed him, " come and see what 
Fve got in my tent.” 

Thinking only of boodle, for which he had a soft spot, 
Mr. Cox came up, and pushed back the tent flap. 

"Here comes the unsuspecting stranger!” cried Ran- 
dolph, and from the darkness poured forth such a horrible 
and very prehistoric roar that the tall cadet made one 
spring across the company street, demanding in no gentle 
tones of Randolph "What on earth he had got there?” 
Then, "hiving” the joke, he walked rapidly away. Only 
one such roar could be risked, and after a little more hec- 
toring the plebs were let out quietly one by one, and Ran- 
dolph sought out Magnus and Rig to receive their com- 
pliments on his success. 


XV 


SIGNALING FOE HELP 

All common things, each day’s events, 

That with the hour begin and end, 

Our pleasures, and our discontents, 

Are rounds by which we may ascend. 

— Longfellow. 

I T was a new experience to be on guard as corporal; 
and instead of the tedious pacing up and down, to go 
round the camp at set intervals, posting the reliefs, 
and then to sleep or lounge in the guard tent. No more 
sounding out the “ All’s well ! ” in proper, or improper, 
style; but it seemed to Magnus that he never missed 
hearing it. 

But whereas in the old days he used to wish every time 
he called the hour that the beautiful, serious, and weird cry 
could reach across the continent, even to his mother’s ears, 
now, on the whole, he was content that it did not. 

“ If only she could hear it ! ” he used to think ; if only 
the “ All’s well ! ” could cross those weary miles that kept 
her away. But now, somehow, he did not wish it. Yes, 
it was all well with the camp, all well with the Post ; was it 
all well with him? Would the words bear a true report 
as she would understand them ? 

Cadet Kindred studied the point a good deal as he lay 
there in the guard tent looking himself over, or stole a 
solitary walk now and then. And I say “ stole ” advisedly. 
Short of stealing away, a solitary walk was hard to get. 

If, at the risk of his neck, he slid down some sheer cliff 
to the river’s edge, few indeed would follow him, but a 

m 


113 


SIGNALING FOR HELP 

cadet boat might come along shore with a barge-load of 
girls in tow. And sometimes he was quick enough to dodge 
behind the bushes, and sometimes he sat still and let the 
shower of exclamations come. 

“Oh, there’s Mr. Kindred!” 

“ J ust see Mr. Kindred ! ” 

“ Mr. Kindred, 'please get right into the boat.” 

“ Haven’t a permit.” 

“There’s nobody round,” said the Kitten. “Jump in 
quick. You never can get back up there without being 
dashed to pieces.” 

“ Hardly with. Then there’ll be one less c additional ’ 
in the way.” 

“ How dreadful ! I thought you were better brought up 
than to talk so.” 

“ I was.” 

“Were you really so very well brought up?” said the 
Kitten, with her head on one side. “Do you know, I 
should never have thought it.” 

Magnus rose to his feet, and doffed his cap profoundly. 

“ Now you’ve done it. Puss,” said Miss Saucy. 

“ Why, I don’t see how,” said the Kitten. “ I hate well- 
brought-up people ; that’s why I spoke.” 

“ Better hate Kin as fast as you can, then,” said Chappy 
from the boat, “so’s there’ll be a chance for some of the 
rest of us. Why, he don’t sleep in chapel more than every 
other Sunday.” 

“ How can he help going to sleep, poor boy ? ” said Miss 
Saucy. “ Such sermons ! ” 

“ Well, come now,” said another cadet, “ that last sermon 
wasn’t half bad. And not more than twice as long as was 
necessary.” 

“ Yes, but for these times ! ” quoth Miss Saucy. “ Why, 
it was just like saying f Be good,’ don’t you know ? ” 

“ Hard upon the times, wasn’t it ? ” said Magnus. 


114 


SIGNALING FOR HELP 

“ Well, row on,” said the Kitten with a deep sigh. “ I 
see by his face nothing I can say will do any good. But it 
is such a pity ! I never guessed he was that sort. A new 
fad, isn’t it ? ” she said in a loud aside, as the oars dipped 
and rose. “ Good-bye, Mr. Kindred ! I hope your medita- 
tions will be very profitable.” 

“ Thank you,” Magnus answered, standing up again, “ I 
think they will.” 

He watched the boat as it went on over the dimpling 
water, then changed his place a little, and began on a new 
end of his thoughts. This girl had “ never guessed he was 
that sort.” 

Maybe she was only telling society fibs, but Magnus 
would not let himself off so. For what reason had he ever 
given her to think him a Christian? Where had his 
colours been, in all these walks and talks and meetings? 
Up his sleeve, in hiding? 

“But I cannot flaunt them in people’s faces,” Magnus 
pleaded for himself. 

No, and no more did the flag its stars and stripes; only 
waved them joyously overhead. 

He had been ready to say that the constant frolic with 
the gay crowd was not good for him, but how about his 
side of the influence? Had he ever tried talking sense 
to girls whom he condemned for talking only nonsense? 
“Ye are the salt of the earth,” but salt refreshes, stimu- 
lates, purifies; how far had he been like that? Without 
being priggish, without setting up for a preacher, could 
he not show in every way that the service of Christ was 
better than all else, and the knowledge of Him the most 
joyful thing in all this world? “Ye are my witnesses,” 
said the Lord Jesus; and what sort of testimony did 
Cadet Magnus Kindred give from day to day? No matter 
how other men did, what had he done? 

The final outcome of all these cogitations was a letter. 


115 


SIGNALING FOR HELP 

" Camp Golightly, 

" July — , 18—. 

" My Dear Mother : 

“I don’t see why you don’t come East and look after 
your boy. How do you know what he is about here? 
Better come and see whether you want him home on fur- 
lough; that is, if that time ever comes, which I don’t be- 
lieve it will. Three, six, well nigh eight months yet before 
it will even be f One hundred days to J une.’ Besides, they 
may find me in J anuary, and then, instead of going home, 
I should go as straight to the Antipodes as if they’d shot 
me out of a catapult. 

" Don’t be uneasy; I’m not skinned more than twice a 
day on an average; skins grow fast here, and skinning is 
nothing when you get used to it. So the eels say. And 
I’m sure to take daddy’s scalp when we get back to bar- 
racks. Not much of a possession, either, I must own. 

"Do you realise, ma’am, that your son is that much 
detested and overworked and maligned being a yearling 
Corporal ? — wearing chevrons, and sporting dignity enough 
for three Major-Generals? Come and see me drill the 
plebs ; best fun you ever saw in your life — when you aren’t 
one of ’em. 

"But now, mother, this is serious. Do bring up our 
three girls respectably, so that when they come here for 
first-class camp, they’ll know how to behave. But first 
of all, you’ve got to come yourself and brush me up. Buy 
your ticket for West Point, stop at Garrisons, cross in the 
ferryboat, and take the omnibus up the hill. Look out 
both sides all the way up; and the minute you see a grey 
uniform throw up his cap, get out. I suppose I might run 
it down the hill, but then if I get in con. and couldn’t 
see you all the time you were here, it wouldn’t pay. And 
Towser’d be sure to be round with his patent magnifiers. 

" So I’ll go to the edge of limits, and as you don’t know 


116 


SIGNALING FOR HELP 

where that is, look out. If you get lost, Fll put Towser on 
the track and he’ll know where you are before you know it 
yourself. I wonder the Phil. Department don’t set him 
to work on the lost Pleiad. 

“ Heigh-ho! I wish you were here this minute — with 
your bag full of gingercakes. I was on guard last night, 
and had nothing to eat but those old cast-iron sandwiches. 
So we put ’em in the reveille gun and they went off that 
way. Love to the girls. Don’t bring ’em this time, but 
come yourself. 

“ Your (very) third class Corporal, 

“ Charlemagne Kindred. 

“I enclose a picture of myself which you may like to 
see.” 


XVI 


RE-ENFORCEMENTS READY 

Rien n’est impossible ; il y a des voies qui conduisent & toutes 
choses ; et si nous avions assez de volonte, nous aurions toujours 
assez de moyens. — Rochefoucauld. 

“ 1 IKE to see it ! ” Well, I suppose they did. It will 
not do to say that never was photograph so 
J devoured; too many just such counterfeits of 
boys in grey have sped across this broad continent and 
been just so received; but it was well for this particular 
one that mere looking at things cannot wear them out. 

At first, after one astonished look and exclamation they 
all broke down and cried. Partly for joy — for how hand- 
some he was ! and how those bell buttons did set him off ! — 
partly for the wild longing it stirred to have him in their 
arms again. But with this came in another feeling: that 
keen, subtle pang which detects a change. Was their own 
wayward, careless, happy-go-lucky Magnus really hid away 
behind that perfectly buttoned coat? For even a year at 
West Point makes a wonderful change, which even accus- 
tomed eyes find marvellous; what wonder that these un- 
wonted ones grew wide open as they gazed? He had 
graduated from the mild sway of persuasion and was under 
orders. 

If the first half hour’s study of the picture was full of 
joy, it may be doubted if the pain of the second had all 
the softening that really belonged to it. This exact, stately 
young man, her Magnus, who used to catch her in his 
arms and whirl her off her feet. This soldierly fellow their 
brother, who would swing himself by one foot from the 
117 


118 RE-ENFORCEMENTS READY 


apple tree and climb the lightning rod and hold on by his 
teeth to the window sill ? They did not write all this out 
for themselves, but the smiles faded. Not their boy any 
longer, but Uncle Sam’s. 

“ I should think they might have left him just a few 
curls ! ” said Violet, identifying one small grievance. “ Oh, 
I wonder what Cherry will say ? ” 

“I wish she’d come,” said poor Mrs. Kindred, trying 
hard to speak calmly. “ Cherry is always so wise. And 
I am such a goose,” she added, feeling after a stray smile. 
“ Of course, he could not be at West Point and a soldier 
and look like my little boy still.” 

“ Let me run up with it to Cherry and bring her back,” 
said Rose. 

“No, no, leave it here! ” cried the mother. “I cannot 
have it out of my sight one minute. Oh, girls ! was there 
ever such a handsome fellow seen, anywhere ? ” 

“Never, I do believe,” said Rose. “Mother, his eyes 
haven’t changed one bit. Just see how they laugh at 
you ” But that look stopped the words. 

“ What is going on here ? ” said a sweet young voice at 
the window. “What are you all studying out?” And 
Cherry’s quick, soft steps came through the hall and into 
the room. 

“ Don’t tell her ! Don’t tell her ! ” cried both the girls 
in an eager whisper. 

“Come in, love,” said Mrs. Kindred. “We were just 
wishing for you.” 

“Yes, come and tell us what you think,” said Rose. 
And placing themselves each side of Cherry, the two girls 
marched her up to a place behind their mother’s chair, 
where she could look over Mrs. Kindred’s cap and see the 
picture, watching to hear what she would say. 

But Cherry said never a word. She started, and gave 
a little cry at first sight of that wonderful presentation 


RE-ENFORCEMENTS READY 119 

of her hero, but then she stood quite still ; her fingers inter- 
lacing each other, the red and white playing hide and seek 
on her young face. That undefined change which they all 
felt came to her with a difference. For Magnus had never 
been hers to have and to hold, but only to gaze at from a 
safe distance ; and suddenly, lo ! he had become more won- 
derful than ever. Whether this put him further away or 
not gave Cherry no trouble just then; she had forgotten 
herself and the whole world at first sight of this picture 
of that astonishing person, Cadet Charlemagne Kindred. 

" Do you think it looks like him, dear ? ” Mrs. Kindred 
said plaintively; and with a quick jump down to earth, 
Cherry answered in the most matter-of-fact way : 

"It must, Mrs. Kindred; it is a photograph/’ 

"That’s true,” said the mother. "I had forgotten 
that, Cherry; you always say just the right thing.” 
And she turned round and held up her face to kiss the 
girl who had spoken with such calm wisdom. But poor 
Cherry found out then that her own nerves were over- 
strung, and she had no answer ready. And what sort of 
an unconscious feeling was it that made her turn away 
and take up the empty " Pach ” envelope and look inside ; 
could Magnus have put in a second copy for her? An 
action, by the way, it was a pity that young man did not see, 
walking, as he was just then, round Flirtation and making 
pretty speeches to the youngest Miss Fashion. 

Cherry laid down the envelope and put on her hat. 

“ You are strange people not to like it,” she said. 

" Why, we do ! ” cried both the girls. “ Only we felt 
just a little bad because it looks different.” 

" But you knew he would grow older, didn’t you ? ” said 
Cherry, tying the hat-strings. “ And you could not expect 
them to let his coat go flying open, in the Army.” 

"To be sure, that is just it,” said the mother, gazing 
at her young soldier; "he is in the Army. Dear me! 


120 RE-ENFORCEMENTS READY 


Dear me ! But take off your hat and sit down, child ; here 
is a whole long letter to read.” 

There could be but one answer to that. Cherry put 
herself on a foot cushion behind the table, just where she 
could have a good peep at the picture whenever she chose a 
and the reading began. But with the very first sentence 
Mrs. Kindred laid down the sheet and looked about her 
with bewildered eyes. 

“ He doesn’t see why I don’t come and look after him ! ” 
she said. “ Why, I thought he had the whole Government 
to do that.” 

“ And it’s the first time Magnus ever asked such a favour 
of anyone, I am sure,” said Rose. 

“ Oh, but you see,” said Cherry from behind her table a 
“he is homesick, Mrs. Kindred, and wants you; and 
nothing else will do.” 

“He must have got over his homesickness long ago,” 
said Violet. 

“Just the first sort,” said Cherry; “but you see it has 
come back again. It is four hundred and twenty-three 
days since he saw his mother.” Her voice choked a 
little. 

“Well, you are an almanac, there is no doubt,” said 
Rose, quite failing to trace this exact tally to its true source. 
“ Dear mamma, don’t look so ! It’s just lovely of him to 
be homesick for a sight of you ; he ought to be.” 

“And of course, you will go to him at once,” put in 
Violet. “ Then you can tell us all about him and the place 
and everything.” 

“ Go to him ! ” These lively spirits, treading down im- 
possibilities with their young feet, were too much for her. 

“ Why, girls, I haven’t the money.” 

“ You shall have my new winter bonnet — which was to 
be,” said Rose. 

“And all my Christmas presents which, perhaps, were 


RE-ENFORCEMENTS READY 121 

not to be,” said Violet. “ I’ve got five cents besides in my 
strong box.” 

“ And Uncle Thorn will help,” said Rose. Mrs. Kindred 
held up her hand. 

“Be quiet, all of you,” she said, “or I shall lose my 
senses.” She sat looking at that boy in grey who was home- 
sick for the sight of her. 

“ It isn’t ‘ all of us/ at all, mamma,” said Violet, “ for 
Cherry is as still as a mouse. Speak up, red lips, and give 
us your opinion.” 

Speaking low, as before, Cherry made answer that it 
would be safe to read the whole letter, before deciding 
upon anything, which was such a self-evident point of 
wisdom that they all laughed, and the reading began again. 

“ Now, mamma, don’t stop till you get through, no 
matter what he says,” pleaded Rose. And Mrs. Kindred 
tried, but in truth it was hard. Every sentence or two 
she would stop and look up helplessly, at the two faces 
that bent over her, or try for encouragment from Cherry’s 
shining eyes, down by the table. Which eyes, however, 
were not always in sight. Cherry found some wonderful 
things in the letter, which the others missed; and so now 
and then retired into her own private meditations. 
“Bring up our three girls” and “when they come.” 
Clearly, then, she also was expected at “ first-class camp,” 
whatever that might be. 

“ Cherry, you don’t seem to hear, my child. What 
does he mean about their ‘ finding ’ him and his not coming 
home, but going to the Antipodes?” 

“ I think it is just some of his nonsense, Mrs. Kindred,” 
said the girl, too happy to be alarmed. “He wants to 
make you come, and so he says all the queer things he can 
think of. You see West Point hasn’t really changed him 
one bit.” 

“ Dear fellow ! ” said the mother, with another look at 


122 RE-ENFORCEMENTS READY 


the picture. “ I think you must be right, Cherry. I am 
getting used to the dress a little. And I’d almost give my 
life to see him. But do you really think I could go so far 
alone, even if I had the money ? ” 

With the happy courage of their years, the girls assured 
her that nothing possibly could be easier; get in and get 
out all right, and the railway companies would do the rest. 

“ Uncle Thorn will put you in, you know,” said Violet, 
“ and as for your getting out, when you are so near Magnus 
I don’t believe anybody could keep you in the cars without 
handcuffs and fetters. You’ll just fly out.” 

“ But suppose I fly out too soon ? ” said Mrs. Kindred, 
to whose eyes the two thousand miles of space loomed up 
very large indeed. 

“ You will not,” said Rose decidedly. “ Conductor will 
not let you. Read on, mamma, please.” 

So Mrs. Kindred read on, only to get more hopelessly 
mixed as to the real state of things. “ Skins ” and 
“ scalps ” — third-class corporals and the Antipodes ; laying 
it off on the West Point vernacular did not clear up the 
meaning a bit. And when the letter had been read care-: 
fully twice through from end to end, Mrs. Kindred laid it 
down and calmly announced that she should set off for 
the East as soon as she could get ready. And the girls 
kissed her and cheered her, and only wished they could go 
too. 

And things turned out a good deal as they had said. 
Mr. Thorn not only bought her ticket, but put her in 
careful charge of the conductor. The girls packed the 
modest little trunk, stowing in all the gingercakes there 
was room for; Violet laid in a dainty handkerchief em- 
broidered with the young cadet’s initials, Rose added a 
small pincushion “ to go in his pocket,” and Cherry, with 
some demurs, sent him her last little drawing of the old 
apple tree which had been his own special private gym- 


RE-ENFORCEMENTS READY 123 

nasium. Cherry had a very pretty knack with her pencil. 
Then they all went to the station to see her off, even some 
of the neighbours joining in. 

“ It’s a clear Providence your goin’, Mrs. Kindred,” said 
one good woman, whose husband had come West looking 
for “ royal roads” to wealth and place. “Now you kin 
tell us all about it, for sen’ Magnus went, we’ve been a- 
thinkin’ o’ sendin’ our Bill. He’s a dreffle shiftless feller: 
don’t take after me, if I do say it. Bill just despises work 
in any shape or way, and so his father kinder thought 
maybe he’d do for West Point. They’d pull him through, 
likely, just as they do the rest, and then he’d he provided 
for.” 

Happily, the train came, and nobody could answer. 
The girls went home and held an indignation meeting, and 
Mrs. Kindred rolled swiftly away, very soon forgetting 
everything else in the one thought that she was going to 
see her boy. 


XYII 

THREE CHEERS AND A TIGER 


'Twas morn, a most auspicious one : 

From the golden East the golden sun 
Came forth his glorious race to run, 

Through clouds of most splendid tinges. 

Clouds that lately slept in shade, 

But now seemed made 
Of gold brocade ; 

With magnificent golden fringes. 

—Hood. 

Y ES, it was a royal August day. The last summer 
month has a very different character in different 
places. In town, where, instead of 

“ Three months of sunshine bound in sheaves ” 

you have the same stored up in pavements and glowing 
from brown stone fronts, it is a time which men naturally 
enough choose for their vacation, and leave the city home 
behind them as fast and as far as they can. September 
rains may clear the air, but till then, away. 

But in the Highlands, with here and there a rare excep- 
tion, August is one of the very loveliest months of all the 
year. We say of a human face that it is finer after life has 
given its touches and done somewhat of its fine chiselling, 
and a little so does the last summer month surpass the two 
that went before. More sedate than jocund June; far 
calmer than July with its tempests and fervid heats, the 
shadows fall differently, the changed lights give you a new 
insight into things. The days are so exquisite partly be- 
cause they are shortening; the flowers hurry out in troops. 
124 


THREECHEERS 125 

And nowhere in all the year do we have such a succession 
of wonderful sunset skies as in August. Then the tem- 
perature is for the most part perfect; the cool mornings 
and evenings only the fairer for the midday heat. It is 
a time when you can sit out, dine out, and well nigh take 
leave of the house altogether. 

One wise thing inexperienced Mrs. Kindred remembered 
to do. From point to point as the miles rolled by, she 
sent postals to the girls at home, and one at the outset to 
Magnus. He knew just when to look for her. And so, 
when the day came, and dinner was over. Cadet Charle- 
magne reported his absence at the guard tent, and strolled 
away to Trophy Point, and seated himself to wait and 
watch. Too early yet by an hour; but he was restless and 
could do nothing else. 

The day was cloudless now; the noon heats still in the 
air ; the hazy, lazy hum of the locusts thrilled out on every 
side. Perhaps lazy is not just the word — but there are' 
no inflections; they fight it out on one line, as few tired 
workers ever can. 

A suspicion of real haze hung over Newburgh ; the more 
distant hills looked faint and dreamy. Far up the river a 
long tow wound silently down, leaving its trail upon the 
quiet water; nearby a sloop or two went softly on, spread- 
ing their white wings to the breeze. There was just enough 
air stirring to lift and drop, lift and drop, the bunting on 
the flagstaff. 

Magnus sat looking and listening, drawing a deep breath 
now and then. How long it seemed since he first saw 
Trophy Point and that flagstaff ! — and it was really but 
fourteen months. He glanced up at the flag, just then 
shaking out its lovely folds. That had not changed. And 
he knew his mother had not; she would be just the same 
blessed person she had always been. But how about him- 
self? and what would she think of him? And now, study- 


126 


THREE CHEERS 

ing that question, Magnus took out mentally his own pri- 
vate stand of colours and looked at them, matching them 
with the flag overhead. It hung very still just then; and 
yet he could see a star here, a touch of the stripes there. 
Storms might beat it to ribands, but they could not change 
the colours nor make the flag oome down. 

“ That weak strip of bunting ! ” thought Magnus, with a 
certain interlining of words not complimentary to himself. 
And other words written above his father’s grave came 
quick and clear: “The world passeth away, and the lust 
thereof : but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 

Magnus stood up and walked slowly along the little 
path to another point, whence he could see the “ Central ” 
road. 

“ I’m no end glad she’s coming ! ” — so ran his thoughts. 
“ But I just wonder how she’ll like her boy ? And there 
she comes ! ” 

For now a puff of white smoke rose up at the mouth of 
the Breakneck tunnel and then fell into a long, curling 
line, and began to wind its way rapidly along the curves 
of the river road. 

Magnus watched it, jumped on the seat to see it better 
still, and then tossed his cap into the air like any boy let 
out of school. 

“ Hurrah, old flag ! ” he cried ; “ there she comes ! Now 
you’ll see somebody worth looking at.” 

The white line rushed on, paused at Cold Spring, 
whirled along over the north bay and hid itself in the 
green Island woods, while Magnus, again waving his cap 
and this time so recklessly that it was near going down 
the hill, hurried away to Battery Knox, ran up on the 
green parapet, and stood to watch. The engine came puff- 
ing over the south bay as if the fate of the nation hung 
on its speed, dived into the Garrisons tunnel and slowed 
up. 


127 


THREE CHEERS 

How long it stayed ! 

“ Just to put off mother and her little trunk ! ” thought 
Magnus, laughing to himself, and then getting such dim 
eyes that he could not see a thing. But he felt as if he 
could hug even the trunk. 

And now, puff, puff, the train slowly moved away from 
the station, and the little ferryboat rang her bell. Of 
course, his mother was there, in the small, dark throng 
that came down to the river, and of course he must there- 
fore really see her, but — Oh! it was too tantalising! I 
think at that minute Magnus would have given anything 
(except furlough) for a good glass. 

The boat was off, steering across the river in a pretty 
curve to suit the tide; the smooth water turning back in 
two long lines of wrinkles in her wake. 

Magnus leaped down from the parapet and was speeding 
away up the path at a great rate when there came a hail : 

“Mr. Kin — dred ! ” 

Magnus paused to see. 

Clustered about the pathetic white column that looking 
calmly down on the silent river, tells in such vivid fashion 
its terrible tale of struggle and death, were three or four 
very summery looking girls: Miss Fashion, Miss Dan- 
gleum, and another whom Magnus did not know. 

“ Do come here, Mr. Kindred,” pleaded Miss Dangleum. 

Well, a cadet is nothing if he is not a squire of dis- 
tressed damsels. Magnus turned and jumped down to 
where they stood. 

“What’s the matter?” he said; “has a fan gone down 
the hill ? or is a parasol in trouble ? ” 

“ There, isn’t that just like you ! ” said Miss Fashion. 
“ No, nothing so serious as that.” 

“Miss Beguile has come,” said Miss Dangleum, “and 
she asked you down to a private view of her eyes.” 

“ Oh, Nina!” said Miss Beguile, in soft expostulation. 


128 


THREE CHEERS 

“We also wanted her to see yours,” said Miss Nina 
daringly. “ ^he doesn’t believe cadets have any under 
those caps.” 

Magnus doffed his own particular cap, as in duty bound, 
but the view Miss Beguile got of his eyes was very short 
and unsatisfactory. 

“ Now find us a nice seat,” said Miss Dangleum. “ We’ve 
got lots of boodle.” 

“Certainly — at any other time,” began Magnus, “but 
now ” 

“ You don’t mean to say you’ve got a previous ? ” cried 
the girls. 

“Very previous, indeed. I am just going to meet my 
mother.” 

“Your mother?” said Miss Beguile with the sweetest 
air of interest. “ How charming ! ” 

“ Dear me, where does she come from ? ” drawled Miss 
Fashion. 

But now Mr. Kindred’s eyes came to the front and de- 
clared themselves. 

“ She comes from home” he said. “ Excuse me, I am 
late ” ; and with another touch of his cap Magnus sprang 
away up the path about as fast as a man could go and 
not run. 

“ He has magnificent eyes,” said Miss Beguile. 

“ Yes, but no use,” said Miss Dangleum. “ I cannot 
bring that man to terms, do what I will.” 

“Flinty, is he?” said Miss Beguile. “Well, I mean 
to get hold of him, girls, I give you notice. He’s the 
sort of man I like.” 

“Is there any sort you don’t like, Bessie?” said Miss 
Fashion. 

“ Oh, it’s always great fun to have men round, no matter 
what sort they are,” confessed her friend. “ But the un- 
approachable is my dearest choice, every time.” 


XVIII 


HIGH SUMMER 

Far through the memory shines a happy day. 

—Lowell. 

M AGNUS meanwhile went speeding on; leaping 
over space, and chafing at the lost minutes in 
terms not very flattering to his fair disturbers. 
But he was in good time, after all. The stage had waited 
for a West Shore train, and when Magnus reached the 
furthest and nearest point to which he might go, the horses 
with their light load were but just nearing the riding 
hall. 

Slowly, slowly — how that stage did creep along. Mag- 
nus crossed the road, went back again, darted from one 
point to another; if only he could get a good glimpse 
inside! Now the lumbering thing turned a little; ah, it 
was just empty. No; surely that was a bonnet on the 
further seat ; and now at this window looking out for him ! 
And surely if ever a forage cap went high in air, one went 
then. But the moment it was within reach again Magnus 
pulled it far down over his own eyes. He had been at 
West Point more than a year, looking at tactical officers, 
professors, dignitaries of all sorts; with wild cadets and 
all kinds of girls ; and now this was his mother’s face, and 
like nothing else in all the world. The boy’s heart gave 
a bound fit to burst something less elastic than a young 
heart always is. 

As for poor Mrs. Kindred, when she saw that cap go 
up in the air, of course you know what happened to her. 
129 


130 


HIGH SUMMER 

But she would not look away, even to cry, and sat gazing 
at that tall figure in grey and drawing the long sobbing 
breaths that bear such a very mixed freight. She even 
forgot to pull the check string, and would have been driven 
straight on if Magnus, in a voice stern enough for the 
first captain, had not bidden the driver stop. And it 
seemed so natural and fitting that her boy should pay her 
fare that when he pulled out a hidden quarter and passed 
it up to the driver no qualms of fear that he might be 
“skinned” for so doing disturbed her mind. Of course 
cadets have no more business with pocket money than they 
have with pockets, but she did not know that. 

Magnus got one hand on his arm, gripping it with the 
other hand as if he thought she might run away ; and drew 
her rapidly along through the nearest byways to a nook 
among rocks and trees that he deemed his own private dis- 
covery. Once there, hidden away in the sweet, cool shadow, 
with the river plashing softly far below, and a wood thrush 
ringing his chimes near by, Cadet Corporal Kindred threw 
his cap down on the grass, put his arms round his mother, 
and hid his face in her neck as if he had been six years 
old. 

It was just what the mother needed. For at first sight, 
this tall, splendid fellow with braid and buttons and 
chevrons, straight as a line, and with all the saucy curls 
cut away, laid her under a spell. Except the first meeting 
kiss she had had hardly a sign from him unless that grip 
of her hand. But now, with her boy in her arms, he 
was her boy still, and she quite too happy for this lower 
world. 

“ Child,” she said at last, “ what have they done with 
your hair ? Have you been sick ? ” 

Then Magnus looked up and laughed; the old shine in 
his eyes making her heart leap. 

"Regulations,” he said. “I am nothing any more but 


HIGHSUMMER 131 

a bundle of regulations, mother. Might about as well be 
a convict labeled 379.” 

“ Regulations ! ” Mrs. Kindred repeated. “ I wish I had 
the making of them.” 

“ I wish you had, mother. And there are some three 
hundred and odd more boys here, who would confidingly 
hand the job over to you. Then we’d have pie every day 
for dinner and cake for supper, Saturday in the middle of 
the w'eek, and no Monday morning recitations.” 

“ But Magnus,” said Mrs. Kindred, bewildered over this 
very mixed lot of grievances, “ don’t you have cake for 
supper ? ” 

“Now and then a mysterious compound which goes by 
that name,” said Magnus. “ We are having it scientifically 
analysed to see whether it is all new-process granite, or 
whether one part mud comes in.” 

But here the innocent, perplexed face was too much for 
him. He almost shouted with fun, tossing his cap up 
higher than it had ever been. 

“ You blessed mother ! ” he said. “ You haven’t changed 
one bit — not a pin’s point. There was one on your shoul- 
der just now to scratch me, exactly as there always used 
to be.” 

“ Oh, my dear ! ” cried poor Mrs. Kindred. “ I did not 
mean to leave that pin there. I just stuck it in last night 
in the sleeping car.” 

“ But you always did c just stick it in,’ you know,” said 
Magnus disrespectfully ; “ and I never remember the time 
when it didn’t just stick out. It wouldn’t be you without 
a pin on your shoulder.” 

“It wouldn’t be you if you were not a saucy boy,” 
said the mother, and then they looked in each other’s eyes 
and laughed ; how happy they were ! 

“ All right, mammy,” said Magnus. “ That pin gave me 
a welcome nothing else could. How are the girls?” 


132 


HIGH SUMMER 

“ The girls are lovely,” said Mrs. Kindred. “ Cherry has 
tried to fill your place, Magnus, ever since you came away.” 

“ H’m, I don’t know about that,” said Magnus. “ Tell 
her she can’t have but half of it, fair and square.” 

“ Oh, well, you know how I talk,” said Mrs. Kindred. 
“ She could not really, dear, nor anybody else. But she is 
the dearest girl, Magnus, and so wise. We have to get her 
to explain all the queer things in your letters.” 

“Do I write queer things?” 

“ Very; or they sound so to us. And I get quite worried 
sometimes. And then Cherry will say in that pretty way 
of hers, ‘You know it is Magnus, Mrs. Kindred, so he 
could not mean that!” 

If two sparks flew from Cadet Kindred’s eyes at these 
words, only the green moss at his feet was witness thereto. 
But, then, a very grave look came over his face. His 
mother watched him anxiously. 

“You do not think I really meant that, dear?” she 
said. “ No one on earth could fill my boy’s place with me, 
Magnus.” 

“No, no; I understand,” he said, without looking up. 
“But she deserves it so. Cherry is a great deal better 
than I am, mother.” 

The mother smiled contentedly. Very small improve- 
ment did her boy need for her. But she would not say 
that ; just as well for him not to know how high he stood 
on the general merit roll. And it was a fine new West 
Point development, if Magnus was inclined to underrate 
his own perfections. Which, by the way, was not at all 
what that young man was doing. But Cherry’s simple ; 
unquestioning faith in him suddenly touched up his mem- 
ory of certain things which (in spite of being “ Magnus ”) 
he had done, and the recollection was not pleasant. Not 
very bad things, Oh, no ! but by no means up to Cherry’s 
standard. 


HIGHSUMMER 133 

“It’s not worth while for her to come on before fur- 
lough,” he said, thinking aloud. 

“ Her ? ” Mrs. Kindred repeated questioningly. 

“Yes, any one of the girls,” said Magnus. “You see, 
the winter journey is one thing; and then in the winter 
there’s such a beastly lot of studying to do. And in the 
spring I shall be boning every minute. But wait till first- 
class camp. Or you might all come back with me from 
furlough — just for a first sight of the place.” 

“ But my dear ! ” said Mrs. Kindred. “ Why Magnus, 
you talk as if we had the Bank of England at our back.” 

“ No, only me in front,” said Magnus with a gleam of 
his bright eyes. “ You don’t suppose I am going to worry 
through the last two years here without a sight of you all ? 
Wouldn’t pay to bone rank if nobody came to see my chev- 
rons. Just as well go on and get rattled like some of the 
rest of them.” 

“ But my dear ! ” said poor Mrs. Kindred. “ ‘ Rattled ’ 
and ‘bone’ you’ve said twice. And you called your 
studies ‘ beastly.’ I thought they taught English at West 
Point.” 

How Magnus laughed! 

“ There are Tacs over yonder,” he said, “ with a party 
of summer girls; and one of the girls offered me a lot of 
boodle. And the Com.’s out riding, and the Supe’s gone 
to town, and the Arch-fiend is at the seaside.” 

“ Now Charlemagne, stop ! ” said Mrs. Kindred. Mag- 
nus gave her another delighted hug. 

“ Oh mammy! ” he said; “ this is you, and no mistake. 
I didn’t quite believe it was at first.” And kissing first 
one hand and then the other, Magnus put them both back 
in her lap, 'and laid his cheek down upon them. The 
mother got one hand away and softly stroked the fine head. 

“I do not understand about your hair, yet,” she said. 

“ Regulations.” 


134 


HIGH SUMMER 

“And why do you wear such a thick coat this warm 
day, Magnus?” 

“ Regulations.” 

“ Why my dear ! Well, you might unbutton it at least,” 
said Mrs. Kindred. 

“ Regulations.” 

Mrs. Kindred was silent a minute. 

“ I took my dinner in Poughkeepsie,” she said, “ because 
I was not sure of getting here in time for yours; and I 
know it is not good for you to wait.” 

“ No ma’am, it isn’t — here,” said Magnus. 

“ But we can have supper at any time you like.” 

Magnus, without raising his head, gave a groan and 
wished they could. 

“ Well, we can,” said Mrs. Kindred. “ I can wait till 
late, or have it early, Magnus, just as suits you. What do 
you mean by sighing like that ? What is in the way ? ” 

“ Regulations.” 

“ Oh well ! ” said the mother, trying to smother her dis- 
appointment ; “ you have some other thing on hand ? Never 
mind, dear, then we’ll be together at breakfast.” 

“No, we sha’n’t.” 

“Why not?” 

“ Regulations. We cannot have one single meal together 
while you are here, mammy.” 

And now, indeed, Mrs. Kindred had no more to say ; the 
bands of red tape seemed to be winding all about her heart, 
and drawing very tight indeed. She had so pictured to 
herself the joy of once more handing her boy his cup of 
coffee. But it must be best for him, she said bravely to 
herself; or else they would not make such rules. And, 
whatever was best for him — 

“What can you do, dear?” she said aloud, but with a 
plaintiveness that went to the boy’s heart. He sat up and 
took her in his arms. 


135 


HIGH SUMMER 

“ I can do lots, mammy! ” he said. “ Never yon worry 
one bit. I can’t do it for breakfast, and I can’t do it to- 
night, but some other day I’ll cut supper, and we’ll have 
it down here together. And we’ll have picnics instead of 
dinner. And I’ll walk with you every minute of release 
from quarters.” 

" Release!” The word jarred on the mother’s ear; to 
what had she sent her boy? But then, whatever it was, 
it agreed with him splendidly ; never had she seen Magnus 
in more jocund health and strength; life at its best was in 
every look and motion. And the eyes that flashed and 
sparkled at her were not the least in the world careworn 
or overworked. So Mrs. Kindred locked up all her dis- 
mayed pangs and questionings, and once more stroking 
her boy’s cropped head, remarked that it was said to make 
the hair grow to cut it. 

“ I’ll have a mop when I come out, then,” said Magnus. 
“ How does Cherry wear her hair now ? same old way ? ” 

“ Oh yes ! ” said Mrs. Kindred ; “ only it’s never twice 
just the same. You know her curls arrange themselves — 
as yours used to, Magnus.” 

“ Disarrange was the word for me. If anybody cuts 
hers off, I’ll shoot him.” 

“ I think somebody did cut one off once, without being 
shot,” said Mrs. Kindred. Magnus coloured. 

“ That was only one,” he said. “ Why didn’t you bring 
them all along? The girls, I mean.” 

“Why, you unreasonable hoy,” said his mother; “you 
expressly bade me not.” 

“I had been here so long, I forgot that you always 
minded,” said Magnus, with a saucy look. 

“ Well, I did not always,” said Mrs. Kindred; “ but the 
girls could not have come off in such a moment, Magnus; 
they were not ready.” 

“ Girls never are. They’d learn, if they had a week or 


136 HIGHSUMMER 

two in camp. Bang goes the reveille gun — and in just 
two minutes you have to be dressed and out in line, swear- 
ing that ‘ Kindred, C . 5 is present and accounted for.” 

“ Swearing, Magnus? 55 

“ Well, some of the men make the statement pretty loud. 
I am one of the mild kind, and ‘ roar gently . 5 55 

“ Yes, I know what your gentle roars amount to / 5 said 
his mother derisively. “ But Magnus, do they really make 
you dress in two minutes ? 55 

“ By my watch . 55 

“But you haven’t got a watch , 55 said the perplexed 
mother. 

“And therefore am subject now and then to miscal- 
culations . 55 

“ Well, West Point has not changed you yet, to hurt , 55 
said the mother, smiling at him. Magnus took her tender 
hands and put one on each side of his face. 

“ Mammy , 55 he said, “ it is the j oiliest thing to see you 
sitting there, puzzling your dear head over my grinds. I 
could cry, if I wanted to. But I say, when you do bring 
the girls, don’t give ’em time to get ready. They shan’t 
come here looking as if they’d never had anything before, 
but had got it now, sure . 55 

“ But our girls have always had enough, you know, Mag- 
nus, and they are not likely to have any more , 55 said Mrs. 
Kindred, cutting both knots. 

“ They are worth all the girls I have seen here, multi- 
plied by twelve dozen , 55 said Magnus. “ Oh, mother, why 
didn’t they come! But I tell you, you’ll have your hands 
full when they do. Violet will make a sensation. And 
Rose — I think True will be fathom deep at first sight of 
Rose; he likes quiet, sweet, strong girls . 55 

“ I should think most people would , 55 said Mrs. Kindred. 
“ And how about Cherry ? 55 

“I said nothing about Cherry . 55 


HIGH SUMMER 


137 


“ Am I not to bring her ? ” 

“ Oh yes ! she had better come too,” said Magnus. 
“ Mammy, it is as good as a month of Saturdays just to 
look at you. You are the handsomest woman on the Post.” 

And now pink tinges came upon the sweet pale face; 
and Mrs. Kindred was certainly the happiest woman any- 
where about. 


XIX 

THE VISITORS’ SEATS 

With whom doth Time gallop withal ? 

— Shakespeare. 

A LAS. Time did not slacken his pace for those two 
people. After that very first day, when Mrs. 
. Kindred really took in the astounding fact that 
she was there , she began to count almost the seconds 
as they ticked away, and grudged even those spent in 
sleep. 

She would sit far on into the night, looking over from 
her window to where her boy’s tent rose up sharp and 
white in the moonshine; and with the first drum-beat in 
the morning was at her post, sending off her heart and her 
blessing to that grey line where Magnus stood. If he was 
on guard she watched for glimpses of his tall figure as he 
went up and down, posting reliefs, and in a sort loved the 
whole white battalion that marched away to dinner because 
one particular white helmet rested on his head. And never 
was there a more devoted frequenter of the camp, as she 
waited there on the visitors’ seats for his moments of 
leisure, happy between whiles that he was at least nearby. 

Then she steadied her nerves to bear the sharp reports 
in the Light Battery drill, and watched manoeuvres and 
evolutions as eagerly as if she understood them all. How 
stately Magnus looked in his various trappings; how 
nimbly he tumbled in and out of the caissons. And when 
the sergeant shouted out at parade: 

“ Company A, one corporal absent ! ” — how thankful 
138 


THE VISITORS’ SEATS 139 

that particular mother was that it could not possibly be 
her son. 

It was astonishing to see such honours and cares resting 
upon his young head; drilling plebs, posting sentinels; no 
wonder he had changed. Was the change in him all for the 
better? The mother could not quite tell. When Magnus 
was with her that joy swept everything else away; but 
sometimes, as she sat alone, her thoughts worked hard, and 
many things came in to tangle and perplex them. 

Loitering about the camp in this way, and never miss- 
ing a formation, Mrs. Kindred also could not miss a good 
deal else. The Point was not crowded; but the summer 
girl — and the summer girl’s supposed chaperon — were in 
sufficient force ; and as young people nowadays think their 
words worth hearing, Mrs. Kindred did not need to strain 
her ears nor give undue attention to know much that was 
said and done. 

It was a glimpse into a life unguessed before. Her own 
had been simple, earnest, and useful, from her youth up. 
The three girls at home were as merry as crickets, and 
overflowing with fun and frolic; but the cricket fun — if fun 
it be — was not more guileless and true-hearted than theirs. 

But now, sitting under the trees and watching her boy 
from a distance, Mrs. Kindred would sometimes hear, 
close at hand, some word or sentiment that made her start 
and look round, with a great wish that the girl’s mother 
were there; and behold, quite often she was . Then this 
mother would get up and change her seat. 

Small use. Near the new place sat a tall young lady in 
tennis rig set free, while her waist was drawn in until 
playing must have been hard work. A game had been on, 
for Miss Viny’s cheeks were flushed, and she still brand- 
ished her racket. She was talking over her shoulder to a 
semi-young officer. 

"I think you have a great deal too much to do with 


140 THE VISITORS’ SEATS 

Captain Chose, Miss Viny,” said this gentleman. Yon 
know he is in a very peculiar position with regard to his 
wife.” 

And the handsome girl, flashing round at him her daring 
eyes, made answer : 

“ That only makes him the more interesting!” 

Mrs. Kindred shivered slightly, and once more changed 
her seat. 

And now she got among a bevy of girls who were talk- 
ing of Magnus; they fluttered in and settled down all 
around her, too eager over their subject to know or care 
who heard their talk. 

“ I’ll get hold of him somehow. I’m bound to do it,” 
said a dark girl in very extreme costume. “ I told you I 
would, and I will.” 

“ Not worth the bother,” said a plump little damsel in 
pink. “ There are plenty more.” 

“ Not plenty with eyes like his; there’s not such another 
pair in the Corps. They’re just heavenly.” 

“ Yes, aren’t they?” said the plump girl. “ When he 
looks at you it makes you feel queer all over.” 

“ I was afraid you were going to say, all through,” said 
Miss Beguile ; “ and you know there isn’t any ‘ all through 9 
to you, Kitten.” 

“ Now I call that too bad,” said the Kitten. “ When I 
am universally known to be all heart.” 

“ Good you are,” said Miss Saucy, “ for you give everyone 
a piece and the supply might fail. But there’s a good deal 
of you, such as it is, Kitten. You’ll turn the three F’s, if 
you live long enough.” 

" Some people don’t think there’s too much of me,” said 
the Kitten, pouting. 

“ About half the Corps, I should judge. Now I believe 
in one grand master passion, don’t you know. I think it’s 
dear.” 


141 


THE VISITORS’ SEATS 

“ It’s a passion for a master — if you’re in love with Mr. 
Kindred/’ said a fourth girl. “ He’ll manage you, Bessie. 
Make you behave.” 

If anybody had had time to notice the quiet little mother 
sitting there, he would have seen a very perceptible start, 
and a pair of eyes as indignant as such tender eyes could 
be. Those girls after her young magnate? Mrs. Kindred 
was fit to go that moment to headquarters and demand a 
cordon of red tape to surround her boy. But she could 
do nothing; could not speak to the girls, could not (alas) 
even shake them. Then she seemed to remember seeing 
him bow to these very ones; and with a certain dress-coat 
air, which now Mrs. Kindred marked as one of the new 
things about Magnus that disturbed her. 

What if Cherry had seen and heard it all? And sud- 
denly Mrs. Kindred knew why it was Cherry she thought 
of, and not Rose or Violet. 

Here was a new and difficult complication. Yes, of 
course, it was all natural, the mother felt, and plain enough 
now she thought of it. Whether Cherry herself yet knew, 
or not, she would , just as soon as Magnus took a fancy to 
somebody else. Could he do that, after having once known 
her? Mrs. Kindred waited till the next relief went on, 
and Magnus within the guard tent was quite out of sight, 
and then went to her room to think and to pray. 

Should she talk to Magnus? — no; skating is generally 
safer than navigation in broken ice. And the next day 
but one she was to go home. 

No further sight of her boy could be hoped for that 
night, and Mrs. Kindred shut herself in and watched the 
silent camp long after the sweet “ curfew ” bugle had cried 
to every light : 

“ Put it out ! Put it out ! Put it out ! ” 


XX 


JUST THEE AND ME 

Hushed with broad sunlight lies the hill. 

And minuting the long day’s loss, 

The cedar’s shadow, slow and still, 

Creeps o’er the dial of grey moss. 

— Lowell. 

T HE next day rose fairer than ever. Magnus came 
off at eight o’clock with “ old guard privileges/’ 
and having also kind permission from the author- 
ities to dine with his mother in the woods. 

Now the ordering and preparing of this dinner had been 
a great joy to Mrs. Kindred; what though the correct 
dainties could not be had. Green corn to boil was an im- 
possibility, even if a kettle could be found; and home- 
made rolls were far out of reach, and not all the canned 
things that were ever turned out could replace her own 
home-fed chickens and home-cured ham. The supplies from 
the baker were fresh and clean and well looking — yet Mrs. 
Kindred sighed, thinking of Violet’s loaves of cake, and 
Cherry’s pies. 

Magnus, however, was not so critical, he did not see 
even such as these every day, and so enjoyed everything to 
his mother’s heart’s content. And as she feasted on her 
boy there was really no lack anywhere. The fair August 
lights and shades chased each other among cedars and oaks, 
the locusts hummed; the birds that had nestlings sped 
swiftly to and fro, bringing food. Fall after fall of rocky 
woods and winding road lay at their feet; below all, the 
white camp in its green setting, then the river — never twice 
142 


JUST THEE AND ME 143 

the same. Far up in the north the Catskills lifted their 
blue, changeless heads. 

It was all so wondrous and so new to Mrs. Kindred that 
she was watching it, taking it in, even when she thought 
she had no eyes but for Magnus. The hills bewitched her ; 
the distant blue, the nearer green; on all sides she seemed 
to hear the silent chanting of her favourite psalm : 

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence 
cometh my help.” 

Surely this was a place wherein to grow “ strong in the 
Lord ” ; a place where to remember : 

“Thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy 
pleasures.” 

“ Mammy, you don’t eat,” said Magnus, beginning on an- 
other small pie. “You might venture — just a little. I 
think there’d be enough left for me.” 

“ My dear, I have too much,” said the mother. “ Mag- 
nus, don’t eat any more of that pie; it is not Cherry’s 
make, remember.” 

“Don’t I know it! But her pies are across the con- 
tinent, worse luck. It is good the know-nothing girls here 
don’t try their hand. Shade of Scipio Africanus, what a 
poisoning of cadets there would be ! Dr. Senna says 
that if it wasn’t for Pretty Newcomb and her candy — 
with a sprained ankle now and then — he shouldn’t have a 
man on the sick list.” 

“ Well, that is good,” said Mrs. Kindred heartily ; “ the 
place must agree with you all. Magnus, do you know many 
people here ? ” 

“ Three hundred cadets, more or less, and too many 
officers quite intimately,” said Magnus, trying the cake. 
“ Besides the bugler and the orderly.” 

“ Any ladies ? ” 

“ Quite some.” 

“I really do wish they taught English here,” said 


144 JUST THEE AND ME 

poor Mrs. Kindred. “You are just as bad as ever, 
Magnus.” 

“ Worse ! ” But Magnus laughed up into her eyes with 
a look that to the mother negatived that. What eyes his 
were ! And that reminded her. 

“ Have you ever met a Miss Kitten ? 99 

“ The cadets’ ‘ pet Kitten ’ ? Well, I should say I had, 
rather.” 

“ Magnus ; I do not like to hear you talk so.” 

“But that is what she is, mammy, so why shouldn’t I 
say it ? ” 

“ Always speak respectfully about women, my dear.” 

“Women? Well, let her pass for that,” said Magnus, 
unconsciously quoting Portia. 

“ You do know her then? ” 

“ Enough to take off my cap when I meet her and walk 
while she talks,” said Magnus. “Why mammy, what 
makes you so curious about the Kitten?” 

“ I am interested in anyone you know.” 

Mrs. Kindred went on, silently putting the remains of 
the feast into the basket. Magnus, leaning on one elbow, 
watched the hands that did their work so quietly and well. 
Then he bent down and kissed first one hand and then the 
other, touching them with cheek as well as lips. And Mrs. 
Kindred left her basket, and coaxed his head down on her 
lap, softly stroking and caressing it. Magnus drew a long, 
deep breath. 

“ Mammy,” he said, “ they don’t grow beds of Roses 
and Violets out here, nor anywhere, I guess, but at 
home.” 

“ It is you that have to grow ‘ out here,’ Magnus.” 

“Yes’m. How much?” said Magnus; “I’m a good 
half -inch taller already.” 

“ Dear me ! ” said Mrs. Kindred, quoting her favourite 
lines : 


JUST THEE AND ME 


145 


“ It is not growing like a tree 
That makes man better be. 

A whole half-inch, Magnus? ” 

Magnus laughed. 

“ Ah, mammy,” he said, “ you can’t keep dark worth a 
cent. Truly, a whole half-inch. Call it three-quarters.” 

“ I must remember and tell the girls,” said Mrs. Kin- 
dred. 

“ Yes, don’t forget,” said Magnus ironically. “ Charge 
your memory, and tie a red string round every finger. 
Then tell ’em the first minute they meet you at the station, 
mother, and have it off your mind.” 

“ You are a very saucy boy,” said Mrs. Kindred, trying 
to look grave. 

“ West Point is a developing place, as some wise M. C. 
said last June. Have the girls grown, mother? How tall 
is Cherry ? ” 

“ Grown a little, I think, in several ways. Every day I 
see her, I think she could not be sweeter — and then the next 
day I think she is,” said Mrs. Kindred warmly. 

“ Bless her dear heart ! ” Magnus remarked under breath. 

“ Sometimes I think she works too hard,” said Mrs. Kin- 
dred. “ I really believe that child carries a book in her 
pocket, and studies every chance she gets. She has coaxed 
the other girls into a sort of class, and for two hours every 
day they study together.” 

“ Good for her ! ” said Magnus ; “ good for ’em all. 
Studies are extremely developing. I wish I could send 
’em all mine. I think I have grown enough.” 

“ I suppose you carry a book in your pocket, too,” said 
Mrs. Kindred, taking her turn at the irony. 

“Haven't got one,” said Magnus; “or doubtless I 
should. The books are on hand, but the pocket is wanting.” 

“No pocket?” 

“ No’m. Now you have an idea of desolate destitution.” 


146 


JUST THEE AND ME 

And Magnus raised himself on one elbow again, drew out 
a white handkerchief from his sleeve, and after a melan- 
choly wave in the air, tucked it back again. 

“ But my dear ! ” said Mrs. Kindred. 

“ Ah, you see what development costs here,” said Magnus. 
“No wonder I have shot up into the air, that being the 
only place where I couldn’t run against regulations. Just 
notice to-night at parade what preternaturally tall men we 
have in the Corps. You see there are no Tacs up over- 
head,” — and Magnus gazed pathetically into the serene 
blue. 

“ Stop fooling,” said his mother. “ Magnus, if you have 
no pockets — why, I never heard of such doings! — then 
where do you put anything?” 

“Up my sleeve.” 

“ Nonsense; your sleeve will not hold much to speak of.” 

“No,” said Magnus; “and so what it holds is gener- 
ally not spoken of. In winter we have a resource — a small 
one ; but in summer we should be hard up if it wasn’t for 
the girls.” 

“ What have the girls to do with your pockets ? ” said 
Mrs. Kindred rather severely. 

“ Would fill them, if we had any. As it is, they fill their 
own and empty them at our feet.” 

“ Magnus, I don’t know you,” said his mother ; “ I never 
heard you talk in that way at home, and I do not like it 
now.” 

“ Well, it’s the truth,” said Magnus. “ The Kitten threw 
a pear after me yesterday, as I went by ; and only this morn- 
ing Miss Midget pelted the men who were at Derby Drill, 
from her basket of peaches. What can a man do? You 
must speak of people as you find them.” 

Mrs. Kindred drew a longer sigh than her boy had 
done. 

“ If that is for me, you needn’t,” said Magnus ; “ Kittens 


147 


JUST THEE AND ME 

aren’t lions, mammy. I’m better off than Daniel, yet. 
Only his detail of an angel stayed by him, — and mine comes 
— and will go ! ” And Magnus brought the beloved hands 
up to his face again. 

Poor Mrs. Kindred ! it was all so strange and sweet, and 
perplexing and delightful, that she was on the very edge of 
a burst of tears. That touch of her boy’s fingers and face, 
so long unfelt, and for so long to be again, just wrung 
her heart. And when so many other confusing ideas came 
to tangle themselves in with this, no wonder her nerves got 
out of order. And so, as such dear people will, finding earth 
altogether too much for her, Mrs. Kindred took ref- 
uge where the ways are marked out, and the standing 
sure. 

“ I am glad you reminded me of Daniel,” she said, her 
voice faltering in spite of her. “ Yes, ‘ My God will send 
his angel ’ to look after you.” 

“ He has ” put in Magnus. 

“ But dear,” the mother went on, “ Daniel risked every- 
thing, for loyalty to his master. I should go home with a 
glad heart if I knew that was true of you.” 

How sweet the summer silence lay between the two. The 
soft plash of the river quickened just now by the swell of 
a passing boat ; the bird notes waking up a little as the day 
wore on; the lengthening shadows, the descending sun. 
And no human voice broke the hush. If a sigh came to 
Mrs. Kindred’s lips, it was stayed there; if deprecating, ex- 
cusing words were ready with Magnus, not one came out. 
Hand in hand, so they sat; but presently the mother’s 
heart went up in such eager, wordless prayer that, except 
that hand-clasp, she was conscious of nothing else. Mag- 
nus, glancing at her furtively from under his cap, saw the 
closed eyes and the rapt face; but even as he looked, the 
eyes opened and lifted with a glow of love and trust that 
sent his own face down, down into her lap. 


148 


JUST THEE AND ME 


“ Well ? ” she said gently. “ How is it, dear ? Are you 
like that ? ” 

“ Not much ! ” Magnus answered, sitting straight up 
again, and gazing off at the shining river. “ About as little 
as you’d like to have me. But mother, you don’t know 
how hard it is.” 

“ Perhaps I do,” she said. “ The world power does not 
go by places, nor is the devil shut up to any State. Didn’t 
you tell me that you had always at least a storm flag out ? ” 

“ Did you guess what I meant ? ” 

“ Cherry guessed,” said Mrs. Kindred. “ She said you 
never took your flag down, even on the stormiest days.” 

“ Like Cherry ! ” cried Magnus. “ Her true heart could 
not even imagine anything else. Well, mother, that’s 
what it ought to mean — and what it does mean, for that 
blessed old banner down yonder. The toughest wind that 
blows never finds that flagstaff empty, from reveille to re- 
treat. And in the deadest sort of a calm you can see a 
touch of blue and a gleam of red clinging and glowing 
about the top of the old pole.” 

“ And for you, Magnus? What does it mean for you? ” 
the mother said anxiously. 

“ Oh, nothing very bad ! ” Magnus answered. “ Only 
sometimes I seem to fly my storm flag in fair weather.” 

There was a long, quiet pause. Magnus waited for his 
mother to speak, and her words were not ready. The young 
cadet, looking at her again, found no shocked expression, 
as he had feared; the tender face was grave and thought- 
ful, but calm ; the eyes gazing out far beyond him. 

“ Dear,” she said at last, “ are all the men in your Com- 
pany Christians ? ” 

“ All the men in my Company ? Well, I should say not.” 

“ Or all your special associates ? ” 

“ Why, no ! Not by several and many.” 

“ Magnus, suppose this pretty place was suddenly peopled 


JUSTTHEEANDME 149 

with aliens, and not an American left but the one in charge 
of the colours. What should he do?” 

“ Hang out the garrison flag, if it blew to tatters ! ” said 
Magnus. 

Mrs. Kindred laughed, but her eyes filled and her lips 
trembled. 

“ Yes, dear,” she said. “So do.” 


XXI 

ME ONLY 


“Everything goes away,” said the Dryad: “goes away as the 
clouds go, never to return.” — Hans Andersen. 

T HAT was the last long talk they had together. A 
brief walk next morning before eight o’clock ; an- 
other — ah, how short — to the brow of the hill 
where they had met that first day ; and then Magnus pulled 
his cap over his eyes and strode away to his hidden nook, 
and the mother went quietly sobbing down the hill. Alas ! 
how fast the minutes flew now that had seemed so loitering 
when she came. 

As for Magnus, he watched the ferryboat every foot of 
the way over; waved his cap frantically to the cluster of 
dark spots that went up the sloping path to the station; 
then listened for the roar of the coming train with an in- 
tensity that made him start when he heard it. With a 
great pang he saw the pliant black line wind out from be- 
tween the cloven rocks and swing along to the station, 
almost holding his breath in the minute’s hush that came 
next. Hardly a minute ; then puffs of black smoke curled 
up into the air, the engine gave its usual snort at such 
trifles as love and life and parting, and the train glided 
on into the tunnel, flew out across the bay, and past the 
Island; the trail of smoke fainted and faded away on the 
sweet summer air, and Cadet Kindred shook his fist at the 
whole thing. 

What right had that black engine to carry his mother 
off before his very eyes ? And what business had he to be 
lingering there behind her? If it could have been done 
150 


ME ONLY, 151 

suddenly and quietly, I believe Magnus would have re- 
signed on the spot, and taken the next train home. 

But red tape has its use. What letters and papers and 
statements such a step would involve; what answering of 
official questions ; and Cadet Charlemagne Kindred did not 
feel prepared to state publicly that he, who had survived 
to be a yearling corporal, must now resign for homesickness. 
A drum call in the distance also lent its persuasions. The 
usual is generally, after all, the easiest thing to do, so Mag- 
nus put his cap in position, and set his face towards camp 
and duty. But taking off the cap again, he first bowed 
very low towards the steadfast old hills through whose cuts 
and chasms his mother had just vanished, kissing his hand 
to her in mute farewell ; then resolutely walked away. 

There was a pleb drill that afternoon, and with the way 
one has of being good by proxy, Mr. Kindred kept his little 
set of men to their work most unflinchingly, with small 
allowance for mistakes, and none at all for inattention. 
Such zeal bestowed upon himself would have wrought won- 
ders. To hear him, you would have thought a mathemati- 
cal line the only easy position, and any sort of twist or bend 
that might be ordered merely a pleasing variety of the 
same. "Brace up” — the poor, distracted fourth-class- 
men felt sure he must have done it in his cradle. 

Miss Dangleum came by and paused to look — and Mag- 
nus was sublimely unconscious of her presence ; the Kitten 
held out a box of bonbons — and he went by at the double- 
quick. Then Miss Saucy joined the group, with Miss Bes- 
sie Beguile, and finally, that young lady’s mother came 
slowly on the scene. 

"What’s the matter here?” said the panting chap- 
eron. "How you girls do run! What are you look- 
ing at? Who’s fainted? These drills are positively 
barbarous! ” 

" Oh, don’t you just wish he would faint ? ” cried the 


162 


ME ONLY 


Kitten. “ Such fun ! Then we’d all rush in with our 
smelling-bottles, while Mrs. Beguile ran for water! ” 

“ While I — ran — for water ! ” quoth Mrs. Beguile, with a 
thought of her rather stout proportions. 

“But you’d be the only one, you know, mamma,” said 
Miss Bessie sweetly. “Because we couldn’t invade the 
guard tents alone.” 

“ Nor in company, either,” said Miss Saucy. “ Nobody’s 
going to faint, Mrs. Beguile, unless it’s me, because we 
can’t get Mr. Kindred to look at us.” 

“ My dear ! ” said Mrs. Beguile. “ I am surprised ! 
Never show such special interest. Why, you will turn the 
young man’s head.” 

“Just what we’re after,” said the Kitten. “And what 
we’ll do, too. I’ll make him look at me — I vow I will ! ” 

The words were spoken half aloud, but the young lady 
got not a glimpse of the eyes in question. Corporal Kin- 
dred’s words of command rang out minus let or hinderance ; 
and if the girls put themselves in the way, he led his men 
straight on, and they had to get out of it. 

“I don’t mind,” said Miss Saucy, after one of these 
raids. “ It’s fun. And he can’t help seeing us ! ” 

“ It’s ravishing to hear anything in such a voice,” said 
Miss Beguile. “ If I were going to be shot, I should like 
to have him give the order.” 

“ It wouldn’t be exactly what you call going off the stage 
to slow music,” said Miss Saucy, as a sharp and imperative 
“ Halt ! ” came from the young corporal’s lips. The girls 
refreshed themselves with a prolonged titter, the weary 
plebs dropped down upon the grass. Magnus walked 
slowly down the road. 

“I wonder if one might venture to address his High 
Mightiness, in these his moments of comparative leisure ? ” 
said Miss Dangleum. “They are so pernickity about 
drills. Mr. Kindred!” (softly and experimentally). 


M E O N L Y 153 

Magnus turned within a yard of the young lady and paced 
back. 

“ Oh, Mr. Kindred ! If there was a snake here, could 
you come and kill it? Wouldn’t a rattlesnake be against 
regulations ? ” 

And now there was a smothered laugh among the plebs. 
But the corporal turned and took his way past the ladies 
again, and gave no sign. 

“ Mr. Kindred ! ” (very pleadingly) while one pretty 
hand held out a box of brown chocolates and another a red- 
cheeked peach. In apparently deep abstraction Mr. Kin- 
dred once more paced dowm the road. 

“ I’ll throw it at him ! I vow I will,” said Miss Saucy. 
“ If I could knock his cap off, I should die radiant.” 

And she did her best. But some puff of adverse wind, 
some swerve in the fair hand, spoiled all ; the corporal’s cap 
maintained its position; the peach fell harmlessly at his 
feet. 

“ Attention ! ” 

The plebs started, and so did the girls. 

“ I’ll go home after that,” said Miss Saucy. “ The only 
thought left to make life bearable is, that he’ll come back 
after drill and pick it up.” But he did not. 

Parade followed drill, and supper came after parade; 
and then in the cool evening light people began to gather 
for band concert. What pleasure Magnus had had there 
with his mother, night after night! This time he did not 
want to see anybody or hear anything. Yet th^, evening’s 
witchery kept him out of his tent, and the unearthly 
sweetness from some of the brass instruments drew him, 
little by little, into the group around the band. Pretty 
soon Rig touched him on the shoulder. 

“ Say, Kin, Miss Dangleum wants you.” 

“ What for?” 

“ Wants to show you how she’-s done her back hair.” 


154 


ME ONLY 


“ Don’t get off any grinds on me to-night/’ said Magnus, 
“ I’m not in the mood.” 

“ What shall I tell her?” 

“ What you like ! ” 

“All right. I’ll go back and report that you are out 
of town, and have left a hear to keep house.” 

Which apparently he did, to judge by the shout of laugh- 
ter that went up. 

“ Oh, do bring him ! ” cried a pretty voice. “ I do so 
dote upon bears. Oh, I think they’re dear ! Which one is 
Mr. Kindred?” 

“ You’ll know by his eyes, when he turns round,” said 
Miss Saucy. 

“But that’s the only way I can ever tell cadets apart 
— by their eyes,” said Miss Midget. “ Is that the reason 
they order ‘ Eyes front ’ so much ? — so that the officers 
can know which one to report?” 

Another laugh followed. 

“You’d better believe old Towser would know, if they 
hadn’t any eyes at all,” said Randolph, “ or if he hadn’t ! ” 

“ Well, he hasn’t, much,” said Miss Saucy. 

“ Stands to reason,” said Rig, “ because he’s got ’em all 
over — diffused. In the back of his head, and on his shoul- 
der-straps, and the white stripe down his trousers, and the 
point of his nose.” 

“ That’s awfully funny ! ” said Miss Beguile. “ Must 
make it awfully lively for all of you.” 

“Just does. The only enjoyment he has in life is skin- 
ning cadets. So it’s ‘ Skin ’em ! Skin ’em ! ’ all the day 
long. Too much shirt-collar at breakfast, and too little 
coat above belt at drill.” 

“ And too much hair,” said Mr. Carr. “ I declare, when 
Towser comes rubbing up and down the back of my head, 
I feel as if I was a baby getting washed and dressed.” 

The girls clapped their hands in applause. 


M E 0 N L Y 155 

“ Such pretty hair, too/’ said the Kitten, “ or would 
be, I’m sure, if one could see it.” Mr. Carr made a pro- 
found reverence. 

“ Thank you so much,” he said. “ Awfully good of you. 
Wish you’d give Towser a hint.” 

“ Wherever did the poor man get such a name?” said 
Miss Beguile. 

“ Simple and descriptive,” said Mr. Carr. 

“ Look here, D. T.,” said Rig, “ I wouldn’t be as funny 
as I could, not every time, don’t you know. You might 
get the blues for disrespect. He’s sure to be round.” 

“ And why do you call Mm ‘ D. T.’? ” demanded another 
girl. 

“ Doubletimes it every day,” said Rig. “ Get’s a late 
in the morning, and a cold absence at night.” 

“But what can we do to rouse Mr. Kindred from this 
awful abstraction ? ” said Miss Dangleum. 

“Let’s give him homeopathic treatment,” said the Kit- 
ten. “ D. T., doubletime it over to the band and bid them 
play c Love Not.’ ” 

“ I’ll go,” said Rig. “ He won’t get there till the drum 
beats. ‘ Love Not ’ — I never heard of such a tune in my 
life.” 

“ You will — first time you make love to the wrong girl,” 
said Miss Saucy. “ Now go ! ” 

“ They won’t do it for him,” said Carr ; “ they can’t — 
unless the Com. or the officer in charge says so. You’ll 
have to go yourself. Towser’s in charge.” 

“ Send the Kitten,” said Miss Dangleum. “ That will 
just fit. Here, Puss, draw in your claws and stretch out 
your paws, and go get an order for the band to play ‘ Love 
Not.’ ” 

So the ecru dress flitted away, and the others watched 
with deep interest. 

“ He won’t do it,” said Randolph. 


150 


ME ONLY 

“ Yes, he will,” said Miss Dangleum. “ Puss is a match 
for the whole canine contingent.” 

And so it proved. The band finished the fantasia they 
had in hand, took their short rest, and struck off into the 
old, time-worn air. 

And now everybody stopped to listen ; some because they 
remembered it so long ago, and some because it was so old 
that it was new. 

Magnus Kindred knew it well. The flood of new music 
had spread but slowly over his own little home region, and 
this air had always been a favourite with his mother. In 
the old childish days, before sorrows came, he had many 
a time heard her sing it. And now, amid the sweet render- 
ing of the band, he seemed to hear her dear voice still, and 
the old words kept sounding in his ears : 

“ Love not ! Love not ! 

The thing you love may change.” 

“ Never!” Magnus said to himself. Not one of those 
four beloved people at home could ever swerve from him. 
What stuff those song makers did write! 

He followed the band through the variations and inter- 
lude. Then began the simple air again; and the words 
would come: 

“ Love not ! Love not ! 

The thing you love may die.” 

A great pang shot through the boy’s heart. Could such 
things happen to him? How had his mother looked? 
Magnus turned away from the band and hid himself in 
the dark recesses of his tent. 


XXII 

GIRLS 

Rien de trop est un point 

Dont on parle sans cesse, et qu’on observe point. 

—La Fontaine. 

S O Miss Dangleum failed for that time. But “ To- 
morrow is also a day,” says the proverb. And it 
is not in human nature to be always insensible to 
blandishments. Mr. Kindred found himself scanning his 
wonderful eyes in the small glass quite oftener than was 
needed. He could also pick out Miss Dangleum’s red para- 
sol clear across the plain from all its compeers ; and knew 
at least half of Miss Beguile’s fans by experience. She 
declared that he had broken a quarter of them, but this 
statement is plainly incorrect. 

The Point filled up to crowding as the encampment 
neared its close, and introductions, walks, picnics, were 
multiplied, and every cadet who liked the fun could have 
enough of it. 

Magnus Kindred, for one, had about all he could manage, 
Rig’s favourite cousin was always on his hands when Rig 
himself was on guard or in confinement. This happened 
pretty often, and as Rig was his “ wife ” Magnus could not 
object. Chapman’s sister was often turned over to him 
because Chapman’s best girl was also at the Point. 

Then there was every now and then some plain, unnoticed 
girl whom Magnus in his chivalry would look after and take 
out, giving her a royal good time. There were guests at 
some of the houses where the young cadet had been made 
welcome, and he must help amuse them. And finally (for 
157 


158 GIRLS 

my hero was every inch a man), there were wits and 
beauties with whom he liked to stand at least as well as 
the best. It was all very enticing, and he was so lonely 
when his mother had gone that petting of any sort felt good. 

So that last part of August was one grand whirl, in which 
common sense and right ways got drawn in and danced a 
breakdown. At least that was what Cadet Kindred said 
of it himself in his calmer moments. For “ Kindred — 
late at roll-call,” “ Kindred — absent at supper,” had been 
read out too often from the blue list after parade. 

Magnus was on guard the last night but one of Camp 
Golightly, and between reliefs took time to foot up his ac- 
counts. What had he to show for those weeks since his 
mother went away? Or (excepting only her visit) for the 
whole of “ Yearling Camp”? Not much, he thought to 
himself with a curl of his lip. The little pleasure he had 
given was easy and cheap; the pleasure he had had — well, 
it did not look very bright to him now. Not very satisfac- 
tory. 

It seemed rather small business to take all the sweets 
he could get : compliments, flattery, and boodle, from girls 
to whom he neither would, could, nor should, give more 
in return than a walk or two ; perhaps only the convenient 
phrase : 

“ Thanks, awfully.” 

And that very phrase was his mother’s aversion. 

And it was no end mean, to laugh at a thing and then 
afterwards score it sharply. Was he still “ training with 
the wrong crowd” — only of girls this time? 

Then he changed his ground and came up on the other 
side. How far had he been a power for good in all those 
weeks? How much stronger or purer had any company 
been for his presence ? Who had learned to think sweeter 
things of religion for his glad life? Wliose doubts had 
weakened in the light of his faith? Was anyone more 


159 


GIRLS 

ready to swear fealty to Christ for his constant witnessing 
to the blessedness of the service? Nay, Cadet Kindred 
knew, now that he took time to think, what had ailed some 
of the merrymaking. It jarred his conscience. And 
sometimes he had felt it at the time. 

That Sunday afternoon, when he had walked about with 
Miss Dangleum, and smiled at her vapid infidelities, the 
twinge had been so sharp, as he thought of his mother in 
the old porch at home, drawing strength and knowledge 
from her open Bible, that he never did that thing again. 
But he had laughed at Miss Beguile’s jests about church 
and church service, and the very next day, in chapel, had 
taken the sugar plums she offered under cover of her fan. 

He had been indignant when some girl, displeased with 
the sermon, shook her fist at the preacher then and there. 
But perhaps she had never been taught any better — and 
what had been his own criticisms of that very sermon? 
Just as open as he dared make them. 

Cadet Kindred felt rather sick of himself, on the 
whole. 

“ That’s a large place in which to keep your colours ! ” 
he said, looking down into his grey sleeve. 

In some things he had stood firm. The first brandy snap 
he got hold of at Mrs. Beguile’s picnic went over the cliffs 
at Fort Putnam, to the great excitement of a nest of young 
squirrels. And the first bonbon drugged with rum fol- 
lowed: first, and last. 

“ But, easy and cheap ! ” he repeated to himself. “ I was 
not going to he tricked into taking that stuff. I had said 
I wouldn’t.” 

What else had he “ said ” ? 

Coming off next morning with 0. G. P., Magnus got 
leave to go to the trunkroom, and hunted out a little copy 
of the Church covenant which he knew his mother had 
packed in with his other things. Then, under one of the 


160 GIRLS 

shadowing trees of Fort Clinton, he lay on the grass and 
read it over. 

“ Unto Him, the Lord, yon do now give yourself away, 
in a covenant never to be revoked, to be His willing servant 
forever.” 

Was it like a good servant to listen to slighting talk 
about his Master’s laws ? To be silent when the Name that 
is above every name was lightly spoken? Could he not 
rise and go from any company? How long would he be 
quiet if his mother’s name was handled so ? He did always 
wince, he was glad to remember, but who had been the 
wiser ? 

“ Not even a poor little storm flag ! ” he said bitterly 
to himself. “ And these are but catspaws that come to 
me.” 

Magnus turned over on his elbow, and looked across to 
the flagstaff, where the colours were having a lively time 
in the breeze; looked and looked, his eyes growing very 
grave, his lips firm. 

“ You’re worth a half hundred of me, old comrade,” he 
said, with a reverent wave of his cap. What was that his 
mother had said in her last letter? 

“Thou, therefore, my son, endure hardness, as a good 
soldier of Jesus Christ.” Turning back after a while to 
his former position, Magnus found himself face to face 
with a pile of muslin and lace, of which Miss Saucy was 
the fair centre. She stood a little away, gazing pensively 
at him, her white kids clasped in what might be either en- 
treaty or dismay. 

“Oh, there’s nothing the matter, is there?” she said. 
“ I was so afraid you’d had a sunstroke, or something. And 
you know you promised me a walk this morning.” 

“Did I?” 

“ Yes, and it’s very rude of you to forget it.” 

“ Well, it is not too late for the walk,” said Magnus, 


GIRLS 161 

slipping the little book up his sleeve, and putting himself 
by the young lady’s side. “ Which way?” 

“ Round the plain. I mustn’t get out of sight, because 
I have to walk with Mr. Chapman at twelve.” 

“ ‘ Have to ’ expresses it.” 

“ You shan’t make fun of him,” said Miss Saucy. “ Of 
course, he’s not some people, — but then he never forgets 
his walks, which some people do. What was that book you 
were studying?” 

“ Regulations.” 

“ Blue book?” 

“ No, white.” 

“ Then it was the black one. Boning discipline ! I don’t 
believe it. Not you.” 

Magnus bowed. 

“Let me see, then,” she said. “I know it’s just some 
old thing with a love letter inside. Give it to me ! ” 

Magnus drew out the little book and handed it over, but 
Miss Saucy was a very bewildered girl indeed, as she turned 
the pages. 

“ What ? ” she said. “ I can’t make head or tail of this 
thing. What sort of stuff is it, anyhow ? ” 

“ Stuff that will wear.” 

“ It ’ll wear you — wear you out,” said Miss Saucy. “ You 
are at least two years older than you were last night. Oh, 
I don’t know anything about religion, except the outside 
of course, don’t you know; but that’s enough. So the 
Chaplain has given you the points, and you’re going to 
pose; Cadet Kindred, the serious man. Well, it ’ll be a 
variety. Come, let’s go; I’ll be the first to have a walk 
with him, anyhow. Will this do-o-o?” said the girl, 
drawling out her words, and bringing the corners of her 
little mouth as far down as they would go. “Mr. Kin- 
dred, what will be a profitable subject for us to discuss, as 
we take our solemn way under the brooding trees that 


162 


GIRLS 

shadow the path once called Flirtation? The low state of 
grace in the Corps, and what to do about it ? Then when 
we’ve settled that we might turn our brilliant light upon 
the girls and go for them.” 

"You said you wanted to walk on the plain,” Magnus 
answered her. 

" Plain’s too gay. Do you think, Mr. Kindred, you could 
lend me your lovely book just till to-morrow? It might do 
me no end of good. And you know how much I need 
it.” 

“ The book would do you no good at all,” said Magnus, 
trying to keep cool. " If that is what you want, you had 
better read your own Bible.” 

" Haven’t one to my name, — so there ! ” said Miss Saucy. 
" Oh, I never dare read the Bible, for fear of what I might 
find. I suppose you see me there quite often, all done up 
in black, and labelled like old letters. ‘ To be ’ ” 

" Stop ! ” Magnus said, so sharply and suddenly that 
Miss Saucy did stop for sheer amazement. 

" Well, I vow ! ” she said. " I wonder what right you 
have to speak to me so, Mr. Cadet Kindred.” 

"No right at all,” said Magnus. " Only, if you play with 
Bible words, you will cut your own fingers; and I’m not 
going to stand by and see you do it. That is all. So if I 
should leave you and go back to camp, you’ll know why.” 
And Magnus strode on at a pace quite beyond the usual 
Flirtation saunter. 

" I never — was — so talked to — in all my — many years of 
existence,” said Miss Saucy, pretending to whimper. "I 
know I’m an awfully bad girl — and it’s awfully sweet of 
you to tell me so. Such a nice time, too, when there’s no- 
body round to take my part. Really looks as if you cared,” 
added she, with soft intonation. " Don’t go so fast, Mr. 
Kindred, please! I won’t say another word — not half a 
word. Not if we meet a procession of snakes. Or my best 


GIRLS 163 

man with another girl. Or your best girl with another 
man.” 

“ You will not meet her,” said Magnus. " She is too far 
away.” 

“ Well, that is abominable,” said Miss Saucy, as a turn 
of the walk brought them face to face with another couple. 
"That is awfully, savagely cruel. Oh, Nina Dangleum! 
Here is Mr. Kindred telling me he is engaged to be mar- 
ried ! How are we all to live on and smile ? ” 

" Excuse me ; I said nothing of the sort,” said Magnus. 

"Awfully of the sort, I should say,” retorted Miss 
Saucy. " Ought to be, if you’re not. With a faraway 
girl that hides all the rest of creation.” 

"Then we are not to congratulate loth parties?” said 
the second man in grey, Mr. Short. 

" Yes, me, by all means — that I’m not the other girl,” 
said Miss Saucy. " We’ve been having the awfullest quar- 
rel ! I never guessed Mr. Kindred had such a temper : he 
always struck me as one of the sweet-milk division. Like 
the Zulu’s dog, you know, that eat up all the missionary’s 
Bible and could never fight any — more.” 

"Naturally,” said Magnus. 

" Well, the dog didn’t die — if that’s what you mean,” 
said Miss Saucy. " Only his popularity.” 

" What do you know about missionaries ? ” said Short, 
with a laugh. " That’s a story made to order.” 

" It isn’t ! I guess I can hear things ; I’ve got ears.” 

"Two pink shells,” Mr. Short suggested. Miss Saucy 
made him a sweeping courtesy. 

" Positively, the first decent word I’ve had said to me 
this morning. Mr. Kindred has been simply savage. But, 
do you know, Nina,” she went on, half aside, " I think he 
believes it suits his style. Very fetching, don’t you know. 
Why his eyes just glowed ! If I wasn’t so awfully afraid 
of him, I vow I’d make him angry every day.” 


164 


GIRLS 

“ Nothing left for you two, that I see, but coffee and 
pistols,” said Short. “ I suppose you can shoot, Miss 
Saucy?” 

“ I suppose I can’t.” 

“ Shall I take the job off your hands? ” 

“ Oh, no use ! ” said the girl. “ Mr. Kindred can’t fight. 
He’s the Zulu’s dog.” 

Magnus coloured; but with a quiet steadiness of face 
and voice that held the essence of bravery, he said : 

“ True, Oh, Miss Saucy ! So, as it is to be peace and not 
war, shall we walk on ? ” 

And Miss Saucy actually behaved herself, for the rest of 
the way ; and declared afterwards that she never had known 
Mr. Kindred so fascinating. 

Late in the afternoon, Rig coming into the tent was much 
astonished to find Magnus with his arms on the locker, and 
his head on his arms. 

“ Whatever’s to pay now?” he said. “ Just seen Pretty 
Newcomb go by with Carr? I wouldn’t mind, Kin! 
There’s several girls left.” 

“ Rig,” said Magnus, looking up at him, “ if you bring 
all your brilliant intellect to bear in September, I’m afraid 
the Institution will blow up.” 

“ Couldn’t get the old thing started. Well, what is it, 
then ? What are you at, all by yourself here ? We’ve been 
having lots of fun in D Company.” 

“ Good place for it,” said Magnus ; “ your sort.” 

“ What are you about, anyway ? ” 

“ Adding up two and two, and tryingto make them 
six.” 

“ Talk of blowing things up ! ” said Rig ; “ if that isn’t 
inflation ! You’ll find it a quicker job, Kin, to fetch in two 
more, if time is any object to you.” 

" When you want sense,” said Magnus, “ go straight to 
the man who hasn’t got any, and he’ll give you his whole 


GIRLS 165 

stock. I’ll pit you against the world. Clear out and curl 
your hair; I’ve got something to do.” 

And Magnus took from his Bible the slip of paper Mr. 
Upright had given him a year ago, then turned over to the 
fourth chapter of the first epistle of Peter, and put it in 
there for a mark. But he looked long and steadily at the 
staunch words : 

"Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be 
ashamed.” 

After a little Rig came and peered over his shoulder 
again. 

" Hard at it yet? ” he said. 

"Yes,” said Magnus, "and like to be. Just look at 
this ! ‘ If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy 

are ye.’ And I don’t feel happy, worth a cent. I feel 
just as cross as two sticks.” 

" But you can’t take that as a command ” said Rig, look- 
ing puzzled. " Folks don’t feel happy to order.” 

"Not a command, no; it merely states the case. How 
I should feel if the cause were as dear to me as it ought to 
be.” 

"Well, I’d like to know what you’re cross about,” said 
Rig gloomily. "All the girls at your feet, and never 
twitted with anything by the Com. If it was me, now! 
You know how I shone in the blue list the other night.” 

Magnus nodded. 

" Well, I hadn’t really done anything,” said Rig ; " not 
worth mentioning, you know ; and so I put in an explana- 
tion. And it was disallowed.” 

" Naturally.” 

“ What do you mean by ‘ naturally ’ ? ” 

" The way of the world, or the tactical part of it.” 

"But I wasn’t going to stand it, if it was, you know; 
and I polished up my buttons, brushed the top of my head, 
swept my face, and went to see the Supe.” 


166 


GIRLS 


“ Submitted your explanation to him? ” 

“Another, Kin, another, with variations. Told him I 
didn’t really know the act was against rules. Which I 
didn’t, except by hearsay; and that’s not evidence in law.” 

“ Haven’t you a copy of the blue book ? ” demanded Mag- 
nus. 

“ Always sleep with it clasped to my heart, so as to know 
when to wake up,” said Rig. “ But now, Kin, what do you 
think the Supe did ? .Passed right over my innocent face 
and guileless bearing, my spotless gloves and inky shoes, 
and went for me like a Bengal tiger.” 

“‘Mr. McLean,’ he said, ‘ignorance in your case is no 
excuse, sir. You have been reported for breaking almost 
every rule known to this Institution. That will do, 
sir.’ ” 

“ And you came away, as usual, sadder and wiser ? ” 

Rig heaved a deep sigh. 

“ Yes,” he said, “ ‘ sadder and wiser ’ will be my motto. 
Kin, as long as I stay here.” 

Magnus laughed and held out his hand. 

“ I mean to make you better that, this year,” he said. 


XXIII 

THE GRIM GRAY WALLS 


I’m older’n you,— and .I've seen things a many ; 

And my experience,— tell ye what it’s hen 

Folks that worked thorough was the ones that thriv ; 

But bad work follers ye’s long’s ye live. 

—Biglow Papers. 

N EXT day the tents were struck; and the mani* 
fold delights of Camp Golightly drifted away 
beyond recall. But how pretty — and how gay 
- — the scene was, that last morning. 

A perfect day to begin with; the air crisp enough to 
herald the coming fall; everything at its best, and the 
crowd at its largest. Mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins, 
friends, and strangers, the whole Post, and half the neigh- 
bourhood. The groups are always very varied, often 
picturesque. 

Here stands a tall first classman, perfectly hemmed in 
by the dear people from home. His cap is off, and his face 
aglow; and lifted high up in his arms is the pet of the 
family; the little girFs hand straying round his neck, her 
soft childish dress and his gleaming chevrons setting each 
other off in a very perfect way. 

Beyond them is a many-coloured group of girls and 
dresses, but the girls look sleepy, and the muslins a trifle 
tired. The small hours of the hop last night have been too 
much for both. They are languidly talking over supposed 
conquests, rousing up now and then to say good-bye to 
special cadet friends, with many promises to come back 
next June for graduation. Under another tree is another 
167 


168 THE GRIM GRAY WALLS 

party in the freshest of dresses, but themselves in the 
dumps. 

<( Why, Amy ! ” says one of the calmest of the group, 
“ you are almost crying ! ” 

“ Oh, it is too awful to have it all go ! ” said Miss Amy, 
never taking her tearful gaze from the white tents. “ I 
asked Ella this morning how she could possibly sit there 
and eat all that chicken and egg. I couldn’t touch a 
thing ! ” 

And beyond these again stands a camera and its attend- 
ant genii, where a half-dozen mothers and their cadet 
sons are getting photographed together. 

Great army wagons pass back and forth between camp 
and barracks, bearing away bedding, lockers, brooms, and 
looking-glasses ; and over the same short road go men in 
grey, with private effects too precious for the wagon, or 
perhaps only a belated broom. 

Out in the company streets there gathered and grew the 
while, this day, an array of rubbish; old shoes and gloves, 
old boxes that had once held boodle, white jars that must 
have known tobacco, and yet had baffled (somehow) all 
tactical noses. White handkerchiefs — this one, indeed, 
duly marked “ Smith, J.” but this other, alas ! filmy and 
fine with embroidery and lace. Once coveted and begged 
for and hid away, now tossed out among mess-hall spoons, 
stray towels, and broken glass. Had it even, perhaps, be- 
longed to the fair damsel now weeping over the coming 
wreck of Camp Golightly? Take warning, young ladies, 
and do not waste your pocket handkerchiefs. 

As time went on, the grey element gradually faded out 
from about the seats, and the white canvas began to shrink 
and fall from its smooth shapeliness, with cadets cluster- 
ing in and about every tent. 

The drummers came, and the first drum sounded. The 
tents shivered and swayed, the cadets took new positions. 


THE GRIM GRAY WALLS 169 

the breeze played over their heads and threatened to strike 
the tents at its own pleasure. Another drum, and now 
every eye and hand are needed to maintain even the sem- 
blance of a camp. Another — and the pretty little 
white town falls prostrate, and the grey men have the 
field. 

Then fold and bundle up, with some cheers for the quick- 
est; the full band marches in, the Commandant leads off 
on horseback — and away goes the grey-and-white host, 
plumes waving, arms glancing, all down the old road to the 
officers 5 row, and so on to barracks. And over the plain in 
all sorts of groups and combinations, goes a motley 
crowd of the sovereign people, vainly striving to get 
there first. 

Poor little Miss Amy! Your cambric handkerchief lies 
limp and low in D Company street ; and the man who was 
to keep it “ always 55 marches past in the battalion, his head 
high in air. 

A day or two of freedom follow, for getting settled; a 
few last bewitching walks are taken by some, while others 
peep into their study books and try to brush off a little of 
the summer’s dust which dims that respected pile. And 
so comes the 1st of September. 

I think Magnus Kindred was glad to get back to bar- 
racks, if only to tackle the year which should bring in fur- 
lough, and the yearling course certainly gave him enough 
to do. But who could not work with furlough before him ? 
and of late another thought had taken new hold of his 
heart. He was but one, yet the honour of the name he bore 
was just so far in his keeping. If he stood high, it would 
be one answer to the taunt that religion made muffs of men. 
That would surely be said, if he were low in discipline, 
careless in dress, idle in studies. 

So for one cause and another, Magnus worked with all 
his might ; stood one in discipline, and in other things went 


170 THE GRIM GRAY WALLS 

steadily up. And his example told; there was a strong, 
sound atmosphere about him that other men could feel. 

His dose of bitter-sweet thoughts about himself had done 
him good; and though he could not help hearing and see- 
ing many things he did not like, join in them he would 
not, even if people laughed at him. More stringent orders 
than any blue book shows had taken new hold of the boy’s 
heart, drawing him back from evil, speeding him on to 
good. "I have sworn unto the Lord, and I will per- 
form it.” Magnus and the flag had a good deal to say to 
each other in those days. 

What busy days they were ! New studies, new drills, rid- 
ing among the rest; but that was a delight. The days 
shortened, the girls drifted away to less studious regions, 
the leaves fell — then the snowflakes ; and the winter settled 
down into the long, steady stride which brought furlough 
nearer with every step. 

January’s first week sifted out several men from the 
yearling class; Mr. Carr among the rest. But as for some 
reason Mr. Carr took up his abode in the neighbourhood, 
he was still at least as useful an ally in helping them break 
regulations as he had been while in the Corps. 

“ If you want some fun,” Rig said to Magnus one day, 
“just hang round the west wall of the Academic after 
supper.” 

“ What about ? I’m not going to put my fingers into a 
dark pocket.” 

“Nobody wants ’em in. There’ll be enough without 
yours,” said Rig. “ But Carr is going to bring up a grocery 
store, and I thought you might like to see it.” 

“Bring up a grocery! Look out it doesn’t turn into 
light prison for some of you.” 

However, groceries being rare in that particular locality, 
when Magnus went out for his evening walk he did stroll 
towards the old Academic. The night was moonless, and 



MOUNT! NO TTFAVY GUNS TN FORT CLINTON 





THE GRIM GRAY WALLS 171 

not overbright with even stars; but the white spread of 
snow made things quite plain enough. And presently, as 
Magnus stepped down the walk, he saw a dark huddle of 
figures near the appointed west wall. A small sled and a 
very big box, with a half-dozen cadets playing stevedore. 

Then an officer came along the walk, meeting Magnus, 
who saluted and passed on. The officer glanced rather 
curiously down towards the dark group, but, with his mind 
full of something else, he merely took a short cut across the 
area, and so through the sallyport from the inside. 

It was at a critical moment. Box after box of chickens, 
mince pies, cakes, ham, sweets, celery, and so forth, had 
been pounced upon, stowed in bags, and carried off. Rig’s 
turn came last. 

“ I believe it’s a mistake, you all going the same way,” 
he said, as he seized the last bag of chickens. “ I’ll slip 
round the corner, and come in from the plain.” 

So round he went in the dusky light and met Lieutenant 
Benton in the very mouth of the sallyport. Rig saluted, 
and slipped in. But dark as it was under the grey arch, 
the officer’s practised eyes found something unusual about 
the cadet outlines, and the next moment he turned and gave 
chase. 

Rig had the start, and would have got off out of sight in 
another second if Mr. Benton had not suddenly shouted: 

" Cadet, halt!” 

Then it was all up. 

“ What have you there, sir ? ” 

“ Chickens, sir.” 

“ Go to the guard house and turn them in.” 

Crestfallen and sour, Rig crossed the area, set his bag 
down at the door of the guardhouse, and went in with his 
report. Being promptly ordered to produce his plunder, 
Rig stepped to the door — and behold ! one chicken only was 
left. The light-fingered, light-footed boys in grey had in 


172 THE GRIM GRAY WALLS 

that two minutes rifled the hag and vanished. And Rig felt 
smaller than his own chicken when he turned it in, with the 
big bag, to the officer of the day. 

“ Just my luck! ” he said gloomily. But he never knew 
who eat the chickens. 


XXIV 

NINETY-NINE DAYS TO JUNE 

The bargain must be, 

That, as long as I choose, I am perfectly free. 

For this ss a sort of engagement, you see, 

That is binding on you, but not binding on me. 

— Nothing to Wear- 

I T is impossible to put in words what furlough means 
to a two-years-from-home boy. For “ boy ” he is still, 
to the dear home group, as well as in West Point 
pranks and frolics. But from the time the Hundredth 
Night is over there is a steadily growing pressure of ex- 
citement. It is not long till, for themselves, the men 
begin to count the hours. 

A great deal of outdoor work comes with the softening 
skies and freshening earth. Company drills, dress parades, 
make the Point all alive again, and the cadets full of growls. 
Not all the prospective laurels for perfect marching can 
make the means to that end a pleasure. They have no time 
for it, they say ; time is so precious, when you do not want 
to spend it in some particular way. But rides on the road 
are good, after the winter drills in the Hall; and Satur- 
day afternoons just perfect — except on the area. Spring- 
ing grass, opening flowers, scented air, and in the distance 
— June. 

For at West Point June has a gift for everyone. In the 
first class, graduation; to the old second class, first-class 
camp and privileges; for the old third class, furlough. 
While the plebs become yearlings, and call themselves the 
happiest of all. 


173 


174 NINETY-NINE DAYS 

As the time comes on, all sorts of tradesmen invade the 
Point; men with samples of cloth for uniforms and for 
“cits”; with sashes, swords, hats, gloves, helmets, and 
handbags; with trunks, class albums, studs, canes, and 
umbrellas. Each Saturday afternoon is weighted with the 
most perplexed sort of shopping. For when you have lived 
two years, or four years, in a forage cap, it takes a good 
deal of study to know whether you will be most Adonis- 
like in a stove-pipe, or a wide-awake, or a plain straw hat. 
The cut of coats, the colour of trousers, cause deep debate, 
as also the probable worth of one tradesman’s word as 
against another’s. 

With first-class questions Magnus had nothing this year 
to do, but over one furlough point he had a sharp fight with 
himself. The “cit” clothes in which he had come as a 
candidate were odious to him on that very account. All 
the same, one way to save money was to wear them home. 
So Cadet Kindred braced up mentally, and said that was 
just what he would do. And then, to put an extra touch 
to his goodness, he thought he would try them on and see 
how ugly they were; break it to himself gently, and by 
degrees, before he walked out through the sallyport in open 
day. 

It was a splendid plan. For lo and behold ! under the 
hard, despised West Point training, Mr. Kindred had 
grown and filled out and developed until he could not pos- 
sibly wear those old clothes. 

Magnus tossed the coat up to the ceiling, regardless of 
what might happen to the plaster, and joined the shopping 
band that very day. 

It was delightful now, in the soft spring weather, to go 
out at every release from quarters, for a stroll round the 
plain, or down by the river. How lovely Flirtation was ! 
An army of “ Dutchman’s breeches ” held all the best posts 
among the rocks by the wayside, scaling the cliffs even 


NINETY-NINE DAYS 175 

down by the landing. And in the deeper shade north of 
Battery Knox, whole beds of dog-tooth violets filled the 
spots of damper ground, lifting their elegant heads like 
the highbred beauties that they are. 

Among the tougher growths, iron wood and black birch' 
were charming with their tresses, and the young tufts of 
maple and oak and hickory leaves were a joy to see. Shad 
blossoms and dogwood “ picked out ” the green ; from some 
far-down hidden corner the spice bush spiced the air. Sax- 
ifrage spread whole sheets of bloom; and Lowell’s “dear 
common flower” gleamed everywhere. 

And then the girls came. Some “ opening buds ” that 
had come fresh from Paris; and some early birds, besides 
robins and song sparrows. The company drills had 
lookers-on; the walks round Flirtation were not always 
games of solitaire. 

Among the visitors who appeared thus early, was a cer- 
tain Mrs. Granton, with two girls of her own, and two be- 
longing to other people — Miss Bee and Miss Clive. The 
Granton girls were just average damsels, but, of course, 
having a gay brother in the first class, they went every- 
where, and knew everybody. Miss Clive was an heiress 
and played ditto, ditto upon yet stronger ground. 

In the wake of these triumphant young ladies came Miss 
Bee with just funds enough to pay her own bills, but no 
particular store of either wealth or beauty. 

She was a sensible girl, had a sensible little face, with 
pleasant eyes and a merry mouth, but had not knowledge 
to make the most of herself in the way some others did; 
nor, it may be, the inclination. No poppy leaves stained 
her cheeks, no powder whitened her forehead, no foreign 
coils of hair swelled out the moderate portion which was of 
home growth. And no extra-high heels put her further up 
in the world than she was by nature. Her shoes were 
“ common sense ” ; her gloves were large enough to button 


176 


NINETY-NINE DAYS 

all the way; her parasol was brown, and she had a trick of 
saying nothing she did not mean. 

No girl who behaves herself will ever be slighted at West 
Point ; cadets are too courteous and too chivalrous as well. 
But in view of all I have told of Miss Bee, you will easily 
guess that her place in the public interest was small. Every- 
one was polite to her, but no one missed her, or looked for 
her, or wondered where she was. Cadets never scowled at 
each other for her sake ; and pretty girls never cared what 
she had on. Yet perhaps among them all there was not 
one who tasted every crumb of pleasure with such keen 
relish as Miss Bee. She had had so little of it in her life, 
poor child! This was her first real outing. No wonder 
West Point was fairyland, and every cadet a born prince in 
disguise. 

At first, indeed, she was terribly afraid of them; con- 
scious, perhaps, of her own lack of “ fetching ” qualities, 
but by degrees that changed a little. The innocent colour 
started to her cheeks as readily as ever, when some grey uni- 
form came up with : 

“ Good-evening, Miss Bee. How did you enjoy the Light 
Battery this morning ? ” 

But when none of them came, when they were all swept 
away in the gay whirl of beauty and fashion, and she sat 
solitary with Mrs. Granton, this was not quite so easy to 
bear, Mabel found, as at first. And many a brave struggle 
for victory went on under the old trees before parade, and 
Saturday afternoons at the Hotel, and in her own room. 
Nobody guessed it, and she never told. 

It was no great wonder if, to this rather dull young life, 
thus suddenly set down at the edge of the bright whirl, the 
hero of all romance, past, present, and future, should array 
himself in bell buttons and grey dress coat. It was also 
quite natural that this hazy individual should develop into 
the face and figure of Cadet Charlemagne Kindred, with 


NINETY-NINE DAYS 


177 


no fault on his part, and no special folly on hers. In 
truth, it was some time before the child picked up a dic- 
tionary of herself, with definitions. 

But Magnus was undoubtedly one of the handsomest men 
there, with keen eyes that could be wondrously soft upon 
occasion, a winning smile, and a laugh that was refined and 
pure as well as gay. And then, -as may happen, his good 
intentions led him perilously far. He thought the girl 
rather neglected by her own party, and so took special 
pains to see and to speak to her whenever she was about. 
He asked her for a walk, when there was danger of her 
being left behind; asked her opinion, right over the head 
of Miss Dashaway, and (I shall have to confess it) en- 
joyed the quick flutter of colour that lit up her face when- 
ever he came near. For Magnus had no thought of risk 
in the matter; he was far too much of a gentleman — too 
much of a man — to try to draw her on for his own amuse- 
ment. He just meant to be kind to her, though he did pick 
up a little pleasure for himself as he went along. Now and 
then he took refuge with her when other girls bored him ; 
made her a “ previous ” against Miss Flirt’s advances, and 
never noticed that all the while he was drinking in silent 
flattery by the cupful ; getting his own mind so bef ogged, 
indeed, that he could not see how swiftly and surely one 
poor little craft was heading for a very dangerous coast. 

Cadet Kindred was not a vain fellow, but what man does 
not feel the bewitchment of having eyes watch for him and 
look up to him, even though he be too careless of them to 
know their colour? What man does not like to have his 
words counted and treasured as if they held the distilled 
wisdom of the sages and the ages ? And Magnus was also 
minus a dictionary, and did not know how to spell things 
one bit. The girl must have a good time, he told himself, 
she could not be left riding at anchor while all the rest set 
sail, and what might happen if he too often played pilot, 


178 


NINETY-NINE DAYS 

to that he never gave a thought. All that was in the realm 
of impossibility, in this connection. Wise men and poor 
girls. 

It looked so impossible to other eyes, and the girl kept 
her own counsel so well that it drew little notice. Rig did 
once or twice ask Magnus if he was getting rattled with that 
little Bee girl, and some others remarked that Kin was 
practising how to flirt when the time came ; but such words 
were empty air to Magnus. It was well for all parties that 
June stepped in, with its absorbing demands. 

There were plenty of men who did more flirting and 
frolicking now than ever, but not so Magnus Kindred. 
Everything dropped out of his life but home and furlough. 
Each night he wrote to his mother about three lines, telling 
her what the “ Exam ” had done with him that day, and in 
all the other between-times he was either freshening up 
his knowledge of some hard points of study, or he was tak- 
ing long walks with June, and June only, to clear his 
brain. If he heard voices, or caught a glimpse of grey 
coats or red parasols, Magnus sheered off, scaling the rocks 
or scrambling down the cliffs to some breakneck spot, quite 
beyond reach for any cadet who had girls in tow. There 
he would lie on the moss and listen to the river, or the bell 
notes of the thrush ; listen without hearing, as he planned 
his journey home. He would take such a train, and make 
such a connection, and jump off at the old station at just 
such a time. He would not tell them quite when to ex- 
pect him, because they would be sure to come to meet him, 
and some of them would cry — right there before every- 
body. And it was a bother to attend to your luggage with 
three girls round your neck. But then Magnus laughed 
and coloured too. There could hardly be three — yet some- 
how two seemed even more objectionable. And still if he 
sent no word, and they did not meet him, there was a good 
half-hour lost from that end of his furlough. 


179 


NINETY-NINE DAYS 

So he argued it, back and forth. And all the while, poor 
little Miss Bee was weeping secret tears over the seeming 
defection of her knight. She must have displeased him 
somehow. 

“ My sisters can hardly wait until I get home ! ” said 
Mr. Randolph one night. 

“ There’s another man’s sister can hardly wait until I 
do,” said Clive. 


XXV 


FURLOUGH 

Den away, away, for I can’t wait any longer. 

Hooray! Hooray! I’s goin’ home! 

— Old Shady. 

I T is strange how some event towards which you have 
been working, and which seemed to fill earth and sky 
till you reached it, at -once then sinks down and be- 
comes hardly distinguishable from the plain. So passed by 
the examination to Magnus Kindred. 

In fact everybody is so fagged out by the 12th of 
June, tired with work, with gaiety and excitement, that 
feeling seems swallowed up of high pressure. This may 
be one reason why the bad success of other men affects so 
little those who have won through. Exceptionally strong 
as class feeling is at West Point, the dropped names seem 
to make very slight impression. And in some cases, of 
eourse, there is no surprise. When a man bones nothing 
but mischief, and tries to crowd into the three weeks be- 
fore examination the study which should have filled six 
months, June is not always kind to him. Unless, indeed, 
he be one of those men who are pure mathematics — and 
even then the discipline column may cut him down. So 
it was with small surprise that Magnus heard Chapman’s 
name among the “ found deficient.” Chapman did not 
whimper, but he took it hard. 

“ It’s that beastly calculus ! ” he confided to Magnus, in 
the hurried moments of parting. “ Oh, yes ! I know what 
you mean by raising your eyebrows, but a man couldn’t 
live here if he didn’t run it now and then.” 

180 


FURLOUGH 181 

“ But you see a man can’t always live here if he does,” 
said Magnus. 

“ Bosh ! Yes, he can. Only they don’t all run against 
old Towser every time, as I did. No, it wasn’t that at all, 
it was the calculus.” 

And doubtless, in great measure, it was. Another boy, 
from far away, fairly came to tears. 

“ I don’t see how I am to go home ! ” he said. “ I don’t 
know what my mother will say ! ” 

While another, who had got a turn-back, liked so little 
what his mother did say that he gave her a sharp little 
lecture on the Graduation ground. 

“ I can’t tell what makes you go on so ! ” he burst forth. 
“ I’m only turned back. Lots of men are sent away alto- 
gether. Why do you talk like that ? What’s the matter ? ” 

Poor mothers ! It is often pathetic to hear them explain 
the case to other people. 

“ He’s a good boy, Miss Smith ; but you know he has 
always been delicate. Hard study never agreed with him.” 
(True, this last.) 

“ You see, Mrs. Brown, he has had such trouble with his 
eyes that I wonder he has kept up at all. I really must 
speak to the Superintendent about the study lights. Then 
these early recitations. Why, at home we never thought of 
waking him up till eight o’clock, and then gently, you know, 
and by degrees. And now he says that gun just goes 
through his head without a word of preparation. I sup- 
pose, really, that is what ails his eyes.” 

“ Everything here is so wretchedly mismanaged ! ” com- 
mented a wise and sympathetic damsel. “ The cadets are 
abused at every turn. I don’t see how they stand it. It is 
the meanest place ! ” 

“ Well, I’ve done what I could to straighten things,” said 
a beaming matron. “ Look at this bag, — absolutely worn 
out in the service. It has brought Tom everything — from 


182 FURLOUGH 

cigars up. And when he wants money, he has only to say 
so.” 

Strange, that with such care Tom should ever grumble 
at anything — especially regulations. 

But graduation has come and gone, the graduates have 
scattered; some for home, some for Europe, some to be 
married “on graduation leave.” For three months they 
have “ the world before them, where to choose.” 

The furlough men, too, are scattered, yet more widely 
and individually, speeding away on the spider’s web of rail- 
ways that covers the country. Class supper was over, 
changed from a gay revel to a less brilliant memory, and 
Magnus Kindred went whirling along towards home. And 
the great question of taking them all by surprise was still 
unsettled. 

The home folks, however, had their own ideas on the 
subject, and for at least two days before Magnus could 
possibly come, they had met every train from the East ; 
Mrs. Kindred, Bose, and Violet. Cherry went the first time, 
but after that absented herself on one plea or another. 
And so on that sweet June afternoon, when the train 
slowed up to let off the one passenger and the one trunk, 
the three were in hiding behind the station. 

No one could ever describe what that first home-coming 
was to Magnus. For miles and hours the excitement in 
the boy’s heart had been working itself up to white heat, 
as point after point rose up to give him welcome. Here a 
cliff and there a hill ; the schoolhouse near by, the church 
further off ; if he had only had a dozen straw hats, I think 
eleven of them would have gone out of the window, for pure 

joy- 

But the little platform was empty, save of officials ; not 
a creature got out of the train but Magnus, and not one 
was waiting to get in. Not a figure broke the broad June 
sunlight that filled the old road towards home. But when 


183 


FURLOUGH 

he had hurriedly tramped down the steps, he found himself 
in his mother’s arms, with the two girls sobbing for joy on 
either side. 

Of the next few minutes, I think no one of them could 
afterwards give much account. Then Magnus, with one 
arm round his mother, gave that hand to Violet, and the 
other to Rose, and so they walked along. How they talked ! 
— with tongues once set free; but most of all, how they 
looked at each other. Mother and son had met within the 
year, but the two girls gazed at their handsome brother 
with a surprised delight that could never have enough. 

“ But I had forgotten that you were so brown, Magnus,” 
6aid Rose. 

“Drills.” 

“ You always were straight,” said Violet, “ but now ” 

“ Bracing up.” 

“ And your hair is so short,” said Rose. 

“ Regulations.” 

Then how they all laughed and hugged each other over 
again, for there were only the wild birds to see. 

“ Well, certainly, if brevity be the soul of wit, you have 
improved in one line,” said Rose. 

“ They teach it out there,” said Magnus. “ * Mr. Kin- 
dred, your head is on one side, sir ! ’ — ‘ Yes, sir. Which 
side, sir ? ’ ” 

“And what did you get for being so saucy?” asked the 
mother, as the laugh died away. 

“Nothing that time. Even Towser can’t skin a man 
unless he gets hold of him. But wherever is Cherry? 
When you all came out of the first bush, I thought she 
would jump out of the second.” 

“ She’s at home,” said Rose. “ We wanted her to come, 
and she wouldn’t.” 

“ But she did the first time,” said Violet eagerly ; “ the 
first day we thought you might come.” 


184 


FURLOUGH 

“ Oh, ho ! — and as I didn’t show up then she put on her 
high-heeled shoes,” said Magnus. “ Girls are all just alike 

“ No, they are not ! ” cried both the charming specimens 
then present. “ And you shall not say that of Cherry. She 
the world over.” 

is like nobody else — and nobody else is like her.” 

And privately, Magnus thought his own two sisters very 
unlike most other girls. With their fresh, unjaded faces, 
undoctored complexions, untrammelled feet and waists, and 
unspoiled minds, they made a wonderful sweet contrast to 
Miss Dashaway and Miss Flirt. Magnus had not known 
how his estimate of women had run down among the crowd 
till he found it mounting up again, ten degrees at a time. 

Even Cherry’s absenting herself — it provoked him heart- 
ily, and he felt himself much injured, but it was after all 
a refreshing change after Miss Dangleum’s ways. Yes, 
demonstrations were the man’s business, and in his present 
mood Magnus felt quite equal to them, could he but get 
hold of the right person. 

No half-grown girl in half-long dresses appeared, how- 
ever, as they reached the house, but for a few minutes Mag- 
nus had all he could manage. The old dog (prudently left 
at home) was nearly as wild over the meeting as his young 
master; jumped upon him, clung to him, danced round him, 
whimpered, whined, and barked for joy. It was not five 
minutes before the two were rolling down the grass slope 
together, then running a sharp race, and then flying all 
over the old house from room to room. Magnus shouldered 
his trunk and rushed upstairs with it, and Plato dashed 
after him, wakening all the echoes that were anywhere 
about. The two girls, putting rolls in the oven and setting 
on cream and butter, almost danced in their tiptoe joy; the 
mother in the small sitting-room hid her face in her hands, 
and cried and gave thanks. Just to hear that boy’s step 
overhead, what was it like? And then to have the pair 


185 


FURLOUGH 

come racing down the old stairs when supper was ready, 
Plato barking in a perfect scream of delight ; — do you won- 
der that the prayer for a blessing was spoken low and fal- 
teringly? or that a hush filled all the room for some 
moments thereafter? 

Then the three busied themselves earnestly about their 
hoy’s supper, and the boy also lent his assistance; Plato 
lying on the floor and winking at him. The old dog was 
afraid to really go to sleep lest he should lose sight of his 
young master. 

“ I suppose her High Mightiness expects me to put on 
my war paint to-morrow, and to go and ca — 11,” said Mag- 
nus, drawling out the last word with ridiculous intona- 
tion. 

“ Who? Cherry? Now, Magnus, you shall not call her 
that,” said Rose. 

“ Shall not, hey ? I will call her anything I like,” said 
Magnus. 

“ Well, go on, then, and do it,” cried Violet, with a 
laugh, “ for here she is.” 

And in more confusion than he expected from himself, 
after this bravado, Cadet Kindred started up from the 
table and found himself face to face with his old play- 
mate. 

Cherry had the advantage of him ; she had seen the pho- 
tograph, and was partly prepared for what she saw now — 
not quite. But to Magnus, with eyes full of the gleesome, 
outspoken girl of sixteen, this vision of a tall, slender 
maiden of eighteen summers, with something of a woman’s 
shy reserve floating round her like the daintiest filmy veil, 
was altogether new. He had seen nothing like it. She was 
so lovely, so dainty, so sweet — if any epithets presented 
themselves, they died on his tongue. 

And the girl, too, had caught her breath ; the living pres- 
ence is always so far beyond the picture. All her nicely 


186 FURLOUGH 

prepared words of welcome took to their heels, and Cherry 
held out her hand and said simply : 

“ How do you do ? ” 

Magnus got hold of the hand, and kept it; held it fast 
while he pushed and pulled chairs about to give her a place 
by himself. The hand was something tangible — especially 
as it was not quite ready to be held. 

“How do I do?” he repeated, as she took her seat: 
“ you don’t care. Why didn’t you come to meet me? ” 

“ I think you had enough at the station.” 

“ And you had enough at home, I suppose.” 

“ Enough to do — yes.” 

“ Well, how can you spare the time to be here now ? ” 
said Mr. Kindred, pursuing his inquiries. A girl who did 
not wear even the semblance of a heart upon her sleeve was 
something new of late, and exasperating. “It is very 
frivolous work to sit by and see me eat supper.” 

“ It will be less so, when I get something to eat myself,” 
Cherry answered demurely. “ But I can wait still longer, 
if it is not certain the supply will hold out.” 

“ There ! now you have got it,” cried Rose, clapping her 
hands; “and good for you, too. Hectoring her in that 
style ! Give her some berries, Magnus, before you eat an- 
other one. Cherry picked two thirds of them with her own 
fingers.” 

“ She did ! ” said Magnus, reddening in spite of himself 
under Cherry’s fire; second classman on furlough and 
presumptive first sergeant though he was. “ That explains 
why I’ve had to empty the sugar bowl. I’m sorry I have 
made such a raid. Cherry, but you shall have what is 
left.” 

And swiftly he drew everything as near the girl’s plate 
as the dishes could find room. Bread plate and butter 
plate, cake basket, cheese, cream pitcher, water pitcher, and 
the wreck of the broiled chicken. Then seizing the berry 


187 


FURLOUGH 

bowl Magnus began to pile the sweet wild strawberries upon 
her plate, adding slowly and skilfully till they ran down 
to the very edge and rose up in the middle a red fragrant 
cone. 

“ How will that do to begin ? ” he said. “ Will you have 
some sugar ? — but I suppose not, as you picked them your- 
self and put all the tartness into mine.” 

The other three looked on, laughing and interested; but 
now Cherry was out of her depth. She looked down at 
the strawberry hill, at the dishes, then glanced round at 
Magnus. What did he mean? Was he really vexed? 
Could he really think? It was the fairest kind of a look, 
so earnest and questioning. What do you mean ? it said. 

I think Cadet Kindred knew very promptly what he 
meant, and saw some things clearly which had been hang- 
ing about in a sort of uncertain haze. And thus in an- 
swer to her shy questioning, Cherry met a look so keen and 
merry and full of mischief, full of she hardly knew what, 
that her eyes fell and the pink flushes came hurrying over 
her face. 

Then Magnus laughed. He had the vantage now which 
belonged to him, and he felt better. 

“ Cherry,” he said, “you are a transparent humbug! 
Mother, will you give me a cup of tea ? ” 

“ I think you are an extremely rude boy,” said Mrs. Kin- 
dred, putting in an extra lump of sugar the while. “If 
these are your West Point manners, you will need a few 
terms at some other school.” 

“ West Point manners are all packed away with my dress 
coat. This is the original Magnus variety.” 

“It is good to know,” said Rose. “Here we have all 
been rubbing our manners up, to receive you properly.” 

“ Oh, that's it, is it ? ” said Magnus, turning to gaze at 
Cherry. “ Good to know, as you say. I did suspicion it 
was something got up for my express benefit.” 


188 


FURLOUGH 

“ Let her alone, and finish your supper,” said Mrs. 
Kindred. “ That is, if you ever intend to finish.” 

“ Emphatically I do ! ” said Magnus. “ If I didn’t, I 
could never begin again, and that would be a loss out here. 
Cherry, give me just a few berries off your plate. I am 
bashful about taking any more out of the dish. The sugar 
has given out, too,” he added, dropping his voice; “and 
these will not want any.” 

Poor Cherry! — she literally found not a word to say, 
but sat looking down at her plate in helpless silence, as the 
hands she remembered so well conveyed away part of its 
contents. Then Rose came with a replenished sugar-bowl 
and set it down by him. But Magnus waved it away. 

“ Thank you, no,” he said. “ These are too sweet for 
sugar. How do you suppose Cherry worked it, to get them 
all on her plate ? ” 

“ Crazy boy ! ” said Rose, “ you put them there yourself. 
Magnus, is your dress coat here ? ” 

“ Truly. Had to bring it along, lest a war should break 
out before I get back. May need it yet ” with an inde- 

scribable inflection which only Cherry caught. 

“ Then if you have done, as mother says,” said Violet, 
“ go straight upstairs and put it on, and come down and 
show yourself.” 

“Put on my dress coat, after such a supper,” quoth 
Magnus. “ I think I will ! ” 

“ Don’t be foolish,” said Rose. “ Go at once, if you want 
pancakes for breakfast.” 

“ Make it waffles ” 

“Very well, then, waffles,” cried both the girls, laugh- 
ing at him. “Now Magnus, go! While your hair is 
short.” 


XXVI 


CHERRY 


Tis the middle watch of a summer night. 

The earth is dark, but the heavens are bright; 
Naught is seen in the vault on high, 

But the moon and the stars and the cloudless sky. 
And the flood that rolls its milky hue, 

A river of light, in the welkin blue. 


—Culprit Fay. 



ND thus it was, that in ten minutes or so there en- 


tered upon the scene a fine presentation of a West 


-A. Jk. Point cadet: short hair, white collar, bell buttons, 
and all the rest. 

Just inside the door Magnus paused, drew himself up, 
and gave a comprehensive military salute; then came on 
with quick, regulation step, halted in front of Cherry, and 
took off his cap with the true cadet swing. 

“ Thought you’d be out, Miss Reserve. I saw you clear 
across the plain. Now Cherry, you must ask how I could 
possibly see so far.” 

“ What would you answer if I did ? 99 Cherry said diplo- 
matically. This photograph in person was not easy to talk 
to. 

“I should remark that I can always see some people, 
across the world. Then you must put your head on one 
side and say : ‘ But you know you have such eyes, Mr. 
Kindred ! 9 99 

“ Well, I certainly shall not say that/* Cherry declared, 
venturing a look. 

“ Magnus, you are a young peacock,” said his mother. 

“ Fine feathers, mammy. How do you like West Point, 


189 


190 CHERRY 

Miss Reserve ? Is this your first visit ? Very warm, isn’t 
it ? What do think of our view ? ” 

Oh, how they laughed at him, Cherry and all ! Mag- 
nus kept a grave face. 

“Will you walk with me after supper?” he went on. 
And Cherry’s sweet eyes opened full on him, to see what 
he meant. 

“ That is not the way at all,” said Magnus (approving it 
highly, all the same). “You must put your head on the 
other side now and say: ‘ Really, Mr. Kindred — he! he! — 
I’m awfully sorry — hut I’ve given all my walks away.’ 
Then I shall answer fiercely: ‘Tell me one of the men, 
and I’ll go fight him and get it back.’ Now, Cherry, clasp 
your hands and say pleadingly: ‘ Oh, no! Please don’t, 
Mr. Kindred! I remember now — there is one walk just 
before breakfast. Would that be too early for you ? ’ And 
I answer practically : ‘ Nothing is tocf early for me, Miss 
Reserve, after you have opened your eyes.’ And then you 
must give me an admiring glance and say: ‘ Oh, don’t 
talk of my eyes, Mr. Kindred ! ’ Then the drum beats, 
and I doubletime it into camp.” 

“You need not say ‘you’ — I should never say such 
things,” Cherry declared; this vision of other girls acting 
as a tonic, though she laughed with the rest. 

“ Of course not ! You do not say anything to me,” re- 
torted Magnus. 

“ She is too polite to interrupt you,” said Rose. “ Do you 
mean to say that West Point girls talk like that ? ” 

“ Some of the girls. Cherry will when I have walked 
with her a few times.” 

Cherry glanced up in quick denial, meeting then the 
aforesaid eyes looking so handsome and competent and 
full of frolic and power that her own beat a hasty re- 
treat. 

“And you walk with such girls?” demanded Violet. 


CHERRY 191 

“ Oh, yes — ” Magnus said easily. “ One cannot be 
uncivil just because they are complimentary.” 

“ But before breakfast! ” said Rose. “ Is there no other 
half hour in the day that would do? ” 

“ My dear girl, it’s not that half hour in particular; it 
is every half hour they can get. You wouldn’t have them 
pink and white their cheeks for nothing.” 

“Pink their cheeks?” 

“ Why, yes,” said Magnus. “ Pink them — frost them. 
I’m sure I don’t know how it’s done.” 

“You are telling traveller’s tales,” said Mr3. Kindred 
gravely. 

“Well, I like that!” said Magnus. “Why, mammy, 
they all do it. Clinker says so. At least not all, I sup- 
pose. Of course, there are exceptions.” 

“ Charlemagne ” — began Mrs. Kindred. But at this 
word Magnus turned to her and “stood attention,” brac- 
ing up to the fullest extent, and saluting with such pro- 
found gravity and respect that the rest all shouted, and 
the mother’s face gave way. 

“ There is no doing anything with you,” she said. “ You 
must give them no end of trouble at West Point. Go up- 
stairs and take off that toggery, and see if you can be a 
reasonable boy.” 

“ I’ve got to give Cherry her walk first,” said Magnus. 
“ She has never walked with a real live cadet ; and she may 
as well practise on me before she undertakes the rest of the 
Corps next summer.” 

“ I look like that,” said Cherry, with some scorn. 

“ Very much like it, I should say,” responded Magnus. 
“ I know how it will be. ‘ Say, Kindred, who’s that awfully 
nice girl you’ve got on hand? Introduce me, won’t you? 
Your sister, aint she ? Well, don’t let her promise all her 
walks to those spoony fellows. You want her to have a 
good time, you know.’ ” 


192 CHERRY 

Magnus hit it off with excellent mimicry, and the room 
was in a buzz of amusement. 

“Then I shall say,” he went on, “that my sisters are 
in quite another package, and that to ensure her having a 
good time, she has promised all her walks to me. 

“ She hasn’t at all,” said Violet. 

“ She will— by that time,” said Magnus confidently; en- 
joying the pulsating colour in Cherry’s face, and compar- 
ing it with the unmoved tinting of poppy leaves. “ Why, 
even to-night she’ll not walk home with anybody but Cadet 
Kindred, in full canonicals.” 

“ Magnus ! ” said his mother, “ I think you are absolutely 
beside yourself.” 

“ Do cadets all talk in that style ? ” demanded Rose. 

“ Not all so brilliantly as I do, by any means, but in the 
same general way.” 

“ Then I think they need a professor of common sense at 
West Point.” 

“ And I think you had better go to bed and to sleep,” said 
Violet. “We’ll walk home with Cherry. Your brain is 
getting overexcited.” 

“ Silence and solitude will calm it down,” said Magnus. 
“ If you all go, there will be a chatter, but Cherry and I 
know each other so well that there is no need to speak. She 
will not try to keep me, mammy ; I’ll be right back.” 

There is no doubt but Cherry was laughing when they 
set out, partly for nervousness, but also in part for the 
mere infectious atmosphere of frolic. She gave no sign, 
however, being much under the spell of the tall, erect figure 
at her side. Whenever she looked up and tried to throw 
off the glamour, one glint of the bell buttons brought it on 
worse than before. 

“ Aren’t we walking very fast ? ” said Magnus mildly. 

“ But you told your mother you would be right back,” 
eaid Cherry. 


CHERRY 193 

“ From your front door — not from ours.” The laugh 
rippled out at that, as Cherry moderated her pace. 

“No use, you see,” said Magnus, falling into an easy 
saunter. “I can do the double faster than you can. I 
knew you meant to scoot away by yourself, the minute I 
went to change myself into a cit.” 

“Who told you?” said Cherry. 

“ You.” 

Silence fell upon this ; then Magnus began again : 

“ You see, I really wanted to have you alone awhile — I 
wanted to ask tidings of an old friend of mine. I thought 
perhaps you could tell me where to find her; girls always 
seem to know about girls.” 

“ Oh, I do not ! ” said Cherry hastily, running over in her 
mind all the girls she had ever heard of. “You should 
ask Rose.” 

“ Rose doesn’t know everything. I dare say you can tell 
me if she has moved off. I thought so much of her ! ” said 
Magnus pensively, gazing up at the stars. “ We used to be 
very intimate. I left my heart in her keeping — whatever 
she did with it. Why — you will hardly believe me — but she 
used to live here, in your house. And when I was going 
away to West Point she kissed me right at this very gate.” 

“ She didn’t ! ” cried Cherry hotly, and then hung her 
head. 

“Oh, you do know her then?” said Magnus. “Why 
didn’t you say so before? And where do you suppose she 
probably is now ? ” 

Cherry resolutely stopped and faced him; what though 
the full moonlight effect well nigh swept off her self-pos- 
session. 

“ Magnus,” she said, “ you are talking great nonsense. It 
may be the West Point fashionable way of talking sense, 
but we are plain folks out here and have not had your ad- 
vantages.” 


194 


CHERRY 

And here Magnus made a bow so profound that it sent 
Cherry’s words to the right-about. 

“ What next ? ” said Magnus. “ That is all more or less 
true, so far, but well begun is only half done.” 

“ Oh, it is no use to talk to you ! ” said Cherry. “ And 
it never was, for that matter.” 

“My talking is of some use, however,” said Magnus. 
“ I have quite succeeded in bringing myself back to your 
recollection. What more did you want to say, pretty 
girl?” 

“ That you are extremely silly,” said Cherry, with the 
laugh getting into her voice. 

“ There is no contenting these women of sense ! ” said 
Magnus. “If I fib, she scolds: if I tell truth, she flouts 
me. If Derby drill will only handle this line of ap- 
proaches, I shall learn how, in time. Don’t walk so fast, 
wise damsel.” 

“ Will you come in and see papa to-night ? ” said Cherry, 
not slackening her pace in the least. 

“Well, hardly,” said Magnus. “I like to make it all 
safe with the daughter before I rush into the paternal pres- 
ence.” 

If Cherry had been that sort of a girl, I think she would 
have lent him a very earnest and hearty little cuff. As it 
was, she gave him one hopeless glance and slipped through 
the little gate, as her next neighbour would have said, 
“spryer’n an eel.” 

But quick steps were play to Magnus, and before Cherry’s 
foot had touched the doorstone he was beside her. His 
hands met round but not touching her, putting the girl in 
a charmed circle of space; and the strong, clear voice 
chanted out an old playtime couplet : 

*' Open the ring and lei her in, 

And kiss her when you get her in.” 

“Oh, Magnus! do hush!” Cherry said desperately. 


CHERRY 195 

“You are altogether wild to-night. And everybody will 
find it out ! ” she added, as if that doubled the case. She 
made a quick motion to dive under “the ring” and get 
away, which was quite fruitless. 

“ Stand still,” Magnus admonished her. “ Unless you 
want the prison walls to converge, as in that told tale of the 
Inquisition. I am going to put you straight through the 
catechism. First of all, will you confess that you are a 
humbug and a fraud ? ” 

“I am only myself,” Cherry faltered, but standing so 
still now that she hardly dared breathe. 

“ Only yourself — a very good answer. Well, I never 
want you to be anything else, more or less. Do you under- 
stand ? ” 

“The words are tolerably plain,” said Cherry. 

“ Then if you are c only yourself/ why didn’t you wel- 
come me home ? ” 

“What did you want me to say?” said Cherry, with 
again a little break in her voice. 

“Say?” repeated Magnus. “You should have thrown 
up your hands and eyes, and then taken down the diction- 
ary and used every word there was in it.” 

But now Cherry laughed. 

“You would have had a pretty mixed dose, if I had,” 
she said. 

“Well, that is past” said Magnus; “you can’t do it 
now. So you must have the catechism. Are you glad to 
see me ? ” 

“Very.” 

“ You are delighted ? ” 

“Yes” — a little slower. 

“ Out of your wits with joy?” 

“No,” said Cherry; “you are the only person out of his 
wits.” 

“ Ready to do anything I ask you ? ” 


196 


CHERRY 


“ In reason ” — again slowly. 

“ Out of reason? ” 

“ No.” 

“ You will dream of me to-night ? ” 

“ I hope not.” 

“ You will go wherever I want you to while I am here? ” 

“ I — think so.” 

“ And you will walk with me three times a day at West 
Point and with nobody else ? ” 

“ I shall not be at West Point. Magnus, do stop fooling 
and let me go.” 

“ Bid me good-night, then.” 

“ Good-night.” 

“ I mean the way we said good-bye.” 

“ That is the way I said good-bye,” Cherry answered. 

“It wasn’t the way I said good-bye,” said Magnus. 
“ This was the way. And this is the way I say good-night. 
Cherry, you are a transparent fraud.” 

“ But you must go,” Cherry urged, very grave and quiet 
now. “ If you do not go, you never can come again ! ” she 
added, as a last argument. 

“What a wise girl! I believe she could tackle warped 
surfaces.” 

“ Are they any harder to manage than you are ? ” said 
Cherry. “ You know ” — but she checked herself. It 
would not do to mention her father again, even to save his 
being waked up by all this talking under his window. 

“ Know what ? ” 

“ Less than you think,” said Cherry coolly. 

“The professors have been trying to din that into me 
for the last two years,” said Magnus, “ but I never thought 
to have you take it up. What were you going to say ? ” 

“ I shall not tell you.” 

“ Sugar and spice,” quoted Magnus. “ Shows what I 
have to expect at my first wild frontier post.” 


CHERRY 


197 


“ I can tell yon what to expeot before that,” said Cherry. 
“If you stay here moonshining any longer, you ‘ will be 
pale to-morrow,’ like your namesake in Dickens.” 

“Then you can hand over some of your pinks,” said 
Magnus. “ Besides, my dear, I must inform you of a well- 
known West Point fact : truth misapplied ceases to be use- 
ful. Mr. Peter Magnus was storing his good looks to pro- 
pound a certain question next day. Whereas I, having 
settled it to-night ” 

But just there Cherry made a quick movement of her 
pretty head, stooped under the enclosing arms, and was out 
of sight in a second. 

Magnus ran down the hill, whistling at the top of his 
power. I am not sure that Cherry knew what he whistled ; 
and I doubt if he knew himself ; but I think it was “ The 
Girl I Left behind Me.” 

“ My dear boy,” said Mrs. Kindred, as her cadet came 
in, “you forget that it is night in these Western regions. 
Have you been round the neighbourhood whistling peo- 
ple up?” 

Magnus threw himself down on the floor at her feet. 

“ Mammy, if you’d not been allowed to whistle for two 
years, you would know how good it feels.” 

“Not allowed to whistle? What could comfort you?” 
said the mother, laying her hand caressingly on his head. 
“ Well, I suppose if three hundred boys got to whistling, 
the effect might be rather powerful.” 

“ What kept you so long, boy ? ” said Rose. 

“ Cherry. She is a rather slow girl, sometimes.” 

“She isn’t!” cried Violet. “Never! She is just the 
quickest girl going.” 

“ Cherry — as I have found her,” said Magnus gravely. 

“ Do all cadets tell fibs ? ” inquired Rose. 

“ Unless I am a shining exception, they do.” 

“Well, do they all look like you?” said Violet, 


198 


CHERRY 

“ Making allowance for the difference of men,” said 
Magnus, with easy assurance. 

“ What are those things on your arm for ? ” 

“ Rank, power, and responsibility. They are not 
‘ things/ they are chevrons.” 

“ What’s the sense of cutting your hair so short ? ” 

“ So as to see better how to skin us for ‘ too much shirt 
collar/ ” replied Mr. Kindred. 

“ Girls,” said the mother, “ you must really let him go 
to bed. I do not think he half knows what he is about.” 

“ Don’t I, though ! ” cried Magnus, springing up. “ Just 
one hour and a half ago tattoo beat, and I wasn’t there to 
hear it.” 

And once more the cap did duty in the air, as Magnus 
gave a tolerably quiet version of the class yell. 

“ Go, child,” his mother repeated, smiling at him. 

“ Yes, I must,” said Magnus. “ Cherry said I should be 
pale to-morrow. It is worth while going to sleep, with no 
reveille gun ahead.” 


XXVII 

OFF LIMITS 


Forgotten the sounds of drum and fife, 

Forgotten the winter days so drear; 

But all was keen with the glad new life 
That throbs in the veins in the furlough year. 

— Howitzer of 1891. 

I T was just like the cross grain of human nature that 
without a sound but the singing of birds to rouse 
him, our young soldier should wake up at precisely 
reveille gun time. In fact he did it for three days, to his 
great disgust; and then, as he said of himself, learned to 
know how happy he was. 

Of course, this first morning at home, with everything 
before him except drills and regulations, going to sleep 
again was impossible. 

So with the sublime unconsciousness of other people’s 
slumbers which marks young men of his age, Magnus lay 
still and began to whistle. And with that other line of 
forgetfulness which shows the inferiority of the feminine 
mind, there was not a woman in the house but would have 
given her best sleep to hear him. 

They were not asleep, however, but up and stirring ; and 
it was perhaps some closing door or opening window, or the 
long unheard voice of the coffee mill, which reminded Cadet 
Kindred that in these regions there was no preparatory 
drum ; and that such a noise as he had been making would 
quite rule out the thought of any private suggestions at his 
door. Wherefore, he had better get up. But what fun 
199 


200 OFF LIMITS 

— to dress as he liked, in what he liked, and be as long as 
he liked about it. 

With these thoughts came another to hasten his motions : 
would Cherry come to breakfast? And if she did, then 
just when would she come? And here Magnus paused 
before a piquant illustration of the young lady herself, 
drawn from memory — or, as the real novelists put it, 
“ which had been photographed on his heart in one brief 
moment.” And thus it seemed : 

A tall, delicately formed girl, with dark hair, which did 
not crinkle and curl like his own, but parted in shining 
waves and rings; a complexion colourless in general, but 
where the rosy tints came and went like a pink cloud, in 
swift pulsations. The eyes — no, Mr. Kindred thought he 
had not a fair look at her eyes last night, and that was one 
thing to do to-day. Also her hand was a soft and fresh 
thing to touch. And at this point Magnus opened his door 
and passed out. 

On the way downstairs he peeped into his mother’s room, 
but no one was there, and he went straight on to a small 
room on the first floor which was a sort of offshoot from the 
house, and hardly bigger than a good-sized bay window. 

But the picture he found there Magnus never forgot. 

The room had been his father’s summer study. Too cold 
for winter use, but in June perfection, with every window 
open to the air. Boses and honeysuckles climbed up and 
ran across and strayed in; amid the tangle birds sang and 
twittered and builded. Further off were cattle and 
chickens, with an old drum major of a turkey cock strutting 
before the barnyard throng. The scent of hayfields was 
mingled with the yet rarer fragrance of new-mown grass. 

If the room had been larger, the minister’s old library 
would have made small show; but as it was, the strips of 
wall between the windows were quite well covered. It was 
a very old affair in every way; leather covers much worn, 


OFF LIMITS 


201 


with handling, shutting in truths that were but the brighter 
for much believing. Very old-fashioned books. You could 
not find a copy of “ Why I am a Doubter ” ; nor a single 
treatise on “ The Eternal Equilibrium of Things.” The 
glad toiler in Christ’s vineyard had had no use for “ The 
Trammels of Faith, and how I Got beyond Them ” ; and as 
little for “ The Proper Sphere and Limit of the Bible, Set 
Forth and Defined.” 

But there was Baxter’s “ Call to the Unconverted,” which 
the minister himself had also preached; with Bunyan’s 
“ Holy War between Diabolus and the Town of Mansoul,” 
the which he himself had also waged; there was “The 
Saint’s Everlasting Rest,” upon which he now had entered. 
There was also old Matthew Henry’s “ Commentary ” in its 
six volumes, which gave people so much to do on the plane 
of the lower criticism, that they had small chance to wish 
for the higher; with Fox’s “ Book of Martyrs,” and “ Lives 
of the Port Royalists,” and Doddridge’s “Rise and Prog- 
ress of Religion in the Soul.” 

Only two chairs were in the room : one, where inquirers 
had so often sat and troubled hearts found peace, was 
pushed back now, its service done ; but the minister’s chair 
still stood by the minister’s table where lay the min- 
ister’s Book of books; and in the chair sat the minister’s 
widow. 

She was not reading at the moment: I think she had 
been listening to the gay sounds upstairs;, and a tender, 
happy smile was on her lips, in perfect keeping with the 
words on which her eyes had been. But everything in that 
room was in keeping, to Magnus: his mother’s cap looked 
to him not a whit purer than her face; nor was the shine 
outside the windows more gladsome than the look she 
turned to him. The young cadet was at her side in an 
instant, down on his knees with his head on her shoulder. 

“ What waked you up so early, child ? ” 


202 


OFF LIMITS 

"The echo of that reveille gun came clear across the 
Continent for the express purpose.” 

“ Hardly. I heard you whistling some time ago.” 

“ Did I disturb you? ” 

" You could not do that,” said the mother. 

“ But you were reading.” 

“ Thoughts of you are never far away from the Bible, nor 
the Bible from thoughts of you. Where have you been 
reading this morning, Magnus ? ” 

“ I’ve not been reading anywhere. Mother, do you think 
I had better run up for Cherry? or will she be here all 
right on time ? ” 

" Time for what ? ” said Mrs. Kindred, rather opening 
her eyes at this very rapid transit. 

" Breakfast.” 

“ Did she say she would come ? ” 

" Why — no,” said Magnus. “ I took it for granted.” 

“ Never take anything for granted about Cherry, except 
that she will do just what is right. She never goes 
anywhere, Magnus, until she has given her father his 
breakfast and seen to his morning comfort in every 
way.” 

“ I should think she might come,” Magnus said discon- 
tentedly. “ It’s my first morning home. He could get 
along for once.” 

The mother smiled a little at the wide space demanded 
by the young people in these days, and the side corner 
deemed enough for the elder ; but the usurpers are too lovely 
and beloved to be resisted. And besides, there is a sort of 
“ while they can ” — that checks many a word ; the tender, 
pathetic force of Dr. Bonar’s thought : 

“ Take thou my place, and be thy feast 
Sweeter than mine has been!” 

" Cherry will not come, Magnus,” she said. “ She never 


OFF LIMITS 203 

gets free before ten or eleven o’clock. So tell me why you 
have done no reading to-day.” 

“ Out of the habit/’ said Magnus. “ I never do it in the 
morning.” 

“ What is your Bible time ? ” 

"Well, if I can be said to have one, it is more apt to 
be at night,” said Magnus. "I don’t always read then, 
but most generally I do.” 

“ At night ? ” said the mother, carefully hiding all signs 
of the underground shock that made her heart tremble. 
“ I like to read at night, too. But then, dear, if you do not 
read in the morning as well, you have no fresh heartful of 
the blessed words to live by through the day.” And she 
looked round at Magnus with such eager, anxious, pleading 
eyes as went straight to his heart. Which truly was not far 
to seek, that morning. He jumped up and put himself in 
the other chair, drawing it up to her. 

“ Mammy,” he said, “ let me tell you about it. It’s this 
way. The gun wakes me up. And I tumble downstairs 
half dressed, and declare at the top of my voice that I am 
myself, and nobody else. That is, the first sergeant calls 
‘ Kindred ! ’ and I yell back ‘ Here ! ’ Then I rush in 
again, and tumble into bed, clothes and all, and get the 
very best nap you ever dreamed of.” 

“ Another nap ? For how long ? ” 

“ Two minutes and a quarter, drum time. Then I finish 
dressing and go to breakfast. And after breakfast, we 
don’t have very much time before recitation.” 

“ Cannot you read then ? ” 

“ Once in a while I do,” said Magnus. “ Not always. 
Maybe I do a little boning in Math. Maybe I take a walk 
with the nicest girl there is round.” 

His mother could not help smiling. 

“ Can you always get the nicest ? ” she said. 

" Oh, yes ! ” Magnus answered easily ; “ unless she hap- 


204 


OFF LIMITS 


pens to be somebody else’s best. Sometimes then. You 
see, so long as she doesn’t look me in the face, she can fancy 
I am her f best ’ man.” 

“ Why, Magnus ! ” his mother said, half laughing now, 
but really anxious ; “ how do you behave, to make that pos- 
sible ? ” 

Magnus laughed too, with great delight. 

“ Sure enough,” he said, “ how do I ? Maybe I go 
through the motions.” 

And now it was Mrs. Kindred who, after a moment’s 
pause, changed the subject. 

“Look, dear,” she said, laying her hand on the open 
Bible, “ I was reading just here : the parable of the sower. 
And my thoughts had been going back and forth from the 
seed which the fowls of the air were let pick up, to that 
other which fell in an honest and good heart, and ‘ with 
patience,’ brought forth an hundred-fold.” 

Magnus ran his eyes over the passage. 

“ There are lots of fowls of the air at the Academy,” he 
said. 

“Mayhe no more than elsewhere. But they have no 
business in your life, Magnus.” 

“ No, mammy, they haven’t,” he said, hesitating a little 
with the difficulty of making his case plain. “All the 
same, .they come in. I’ll go to a right down good prayer- 
meeting Sunday night, and come back meaning to be the 
joy of your heart from that time on. Think I’ll go straight 
to bed, so as to be sure and keep good till morning. Well, 
the moon is coming up as I get back to camp, and there is 
Randolph with pink and white gowns in tow ; and I stop to 
speak, and they all say : ‘ Oh, come for a little walk ! ’ I 
don’t want to, and I half turn away — and then I go. 
The prayer-meeting isn’t all gone by the time I get 
back, but there has been more of it picked up than you’d 
like.” 


OFF LIMITS m 

“ Yes,” the mother answered, thinking in her heart that 
she had not prayed half enough for her boy in his hard 
places. 

“Why, I’ve seen a man stay to Communion,” Magnus 
went on, “and when we came out, there was Pretty 
Newcomb waiting for him in the rain, at the foot of 
the Chapel steps. Just walked him off alongside of her 
umbrella — or under it. And what are you going to 
do?” 

“ I see. But, Magnus, you said ‘ Sunday ’ night. What 
sort of girls are at the Camp Sunday night ? ” 

“ Summer girls,” said Magnus briefly. 

“ Well, dear,” said the mother, the cheerful tone coming 
back to her voice, “the Lord is ‘able to keep you from 
falling/ even in the most difficult places ; and to make you 
f fruitful to every good work/ in spite of all the fowls of the 
air that ever fluttered down. But remember, that on your 
part the word is : ‘ Hold fast that which thou hast, that no 
man take thy crown/ ” 

“I know.” But then Magnus remembered something 
else, and was suddenly silent. 

And now came a soft, imperative call to breakfast. 

“ Waffles ! ” cried Eose in the distance, and the talk 
ended. Only as the mother went out with her boy’s arm 
round her waist, she looked up at him with her true 
eyes. 

“Magnus, never ‘go through the motions/ as you call 
it, with the wrong woman. Never, as a sham. It dis- 
honours the woman and degrades the man, and robs the 
other woman — the right one — of somewhat that belongs 
to her alone.” 

“Well, I never really have, mammy,” said Magnus 
gravely; “so make your mind easy. And I never shall 
— unless the right one throws me over. I don’t know what 
I’ll do them” 


206 0 F F L I M I T S 

And in spite of all previous warning Magnus looked 
round the breakfast room for Cherry, and not finding her, 
felt very much aggrieved. 

There was no lack of talk and laughter, however; the joy 
of those four people in being together was extreme, and of 
course, the others did not miss Cherry, not having expected 
her, but Magnus did. The reserved, dainty girl had taken 
him by storm. They had always been inseparable as chil- 
dren, and as true boy and girl, though never with any 
freedom on her part, even then, that passed the prettiest 
bounds. Now she had stepped off a little, regarding him 
from a safer grown-up distance, and Magnus was wild to 
annihilate both time and space, and whatever else came in 
his way. She had bloomed out into something much rarer 
than he knew could be in the world, and Cadet Kindred 
surrendered at discretion, and without a summons. I be- 
lieve he found that last fact the crowning charm. If 
Cherry had held forth her little finger to draw him on, or 
had in any way shortened that new indefinable distance be- 
tween him and her, I think Magnus would have struck off 
a percentage from her perfections. It vexed and bewitched 
him equally. 

So the young man sat opposite 1 1 e open window, where 
the smoke from the other house curled softly into view, 
and thought himself ill-used and happy in about half and 
half mixture. He watched the winding path, but it re- 
mained empty. Then he looked at his sisters; how hand- 
some they were, too! Splendid girls, both of them; and 
wouldn’t they make a stir in first-class camp? Of course 
his mother had always been perfection. And here his eyes 
came round to her, with a smile of such joyful love and 
content that poor Mrs. Kindred was very near making a 
goose of herself, as she would have phrased it. What it 
was to have her boy home again! 

“ But I cannot see why they don’t move down here ! ” 


OFF LIMITS 207 

Magnus broke forth irrelevantly. " Living on there all by 
themselves in that stupid old house.” 

“ Stupid ? ” cried Violet. " Why, it’s the very prettiest 
house in all the State.” 

“ You had best not let Cherry hear you say such things,” 
remarked Rose. " She loves that house with all her heart.” 

“ Stuff ! ” said Magnus. " She’ll have to leave it some 
time.” 

“ She will not while her father lives,” said Mrs. Kindred. 

“ Why, mother, girls do it every day.” 

“ Girls — but not Cherry,” the mother answered; and 
Magnus was so charmed with the saying, and the fair little 
pedestal on which it placed his heart’s delight, that he 
adopted it for a private phrase of his own ; used many times 
afterwards, it may be said, when " girls — but not Cherry,” 
were around. 

"Then, when she will not come, you go to her?” he 
asked. 

"Oh, she always comes,” said Violet; "some time in 
the day.” 

" Some time in the day ! ” 

"According to what she has to do. Only letter days 
she always came early, and left the work till she got 
back.” 

"Some of it,” corrected Rose. "But there’s no letter 
due from Magnus to-day, you know, so we cannot tell when 
she will be here.” 

" Now that is too bad ! ” said Mr. Kindred, pushing 
back his chair. " Coming to hear my letters, and not com- 
ing to see me ! ” 

" Well, the letters were very interesting, you know ” 

Violet began, and then thought it prudent to vanish. 

"But, my dear,” said Mrs. Kindred, "as you must of 
course go up there this morning yourself before you pay 
any other visits, I do not see how it really matters.” 


208 


OFF LIMITS 

“ No, of course/’ said Magnus briskly. “ Oh, mammy, 
I wish you’d pick out a lot of such easy duties for me.” 

“ We cannot go with you,” said Rose, “ because we also 
have something to do; but we will come after you. You 
must wear your cadet clothes for Mr. Erskine.” 

So Magnus put himself in trim, and charging his sisters 
not to hurry on his account, and promising faithfully to 
w^ait till they came, began to mount the hill. Good for 
him the girls were busy — and yet, suppose that other girl 
were hid away in some part of the house to which Rose and 
Violet could go, while he could not ? 

Magnus whistled his thoughts down the wind, as he went 
on, and then, with a sudden fancy to approach unnoticed, 
hushed his tones and even his steps, and went in, seeing no- 
body. Through the hall to the back door — and there got 
another picture to think of in barracks. 


XXVIII 


ON EXHIBITION 

Wise men always 
Affirm and say. 

That best is for a man 

Diligently 

For to apply. 

All business that he can. 

—Sir T. More. 

T HE Red House had been set very near the branch 
road by which he came up, and in front there 
was only a short path and a bit of greensward, 
but at the back lay a big old-fashioned garden, sloping 
gaily down towards a bit of woodland and a talkative brook. 

Overlooking all this was a very wide porch with sashes 
on all sides which could be shut, but which on this warm 
still morning were all slid back. The porch within was 
full of flowers, with various rustic holders to hang and to 
stand and to rest on the sills, a wonderful basket of lilies 
of the valley being the centre piece on the breakfast table. 

There were traces in the house of other days and more 
Eastern regions, and the little spider-legged table was dark 
with long years of service, the spoons were slim-stemmed 
and delicate, the dishes of exquisite blue and white. 

But the dishes held very simple viands: bread, milk, 
wheat, with fruit and flowers, were about the whole, for 
some hurts or injuries dating back to the war time had 
slowly brought Mr. Erskine to a semi-invalid state, and 
Cherry wanted nothing but what her father had. 

I have told you nothing about Mr. Erskine— and yet 
he was a very noticeable man. Hair whitened more with 
209 


210 


ON EXHIBITION 


sorrow than years (it had changed suddenly upon the 
death of his wife), cheeks where the native red still lin- 
gered, setting off the look of extremely delicate health, 
with features refined and above-board in every line. The 
eyes were both soft and flashing, the smile — once the mer- 
riest in the world — now never lost its shade of pathos. 
Everything about the man was refined, the daintily cared- 
for hand, the plain, scrupulously neat dress. Across one 
edge of the placid brow a red scar swept down and hid itself 
among the thick locks of frosted hair, and now, as you 
looked further, you could see that the right hand had lost 
its mate, and the left sleeve hung empty. 

With one hand resting lightly on that shoulder and 
kneeling at her father’s side, Cherry read to him from a 
book laid open on the table, while Mr. Erskine was slowly 
finishing his plate of strawberries, dipping them, one by 
one, in the white sugar. Now and then a word of question, 
of comment, of explanation, passed between the two, with 
heads lifted and eyes meeting each other, then the reading 
went on again. 

This was what Magnus saw ; and though he made out no 
words, the mere tones of Cherry’s voice seemed to him as 
sweet as any bird or brook or leaf-stir in the whole morning 
concert; and I know not how long he might have stood 
there in the shadows of the hall, if little Snip, the terrier, 
being officer in charge and scenting mischief, had not rushed 
in from the garden on a tour of keen inspection coupled 
with much comment. Cherry rose quickly to her feet, 
Magnus stepped out upon the porch, and catching hold of 
her hand, as he went by, dropped down upon one knee by 
Mr. Erskine, in laughing glee at his astonishment. 

“ Magnus ! ” he cried. “ My dear boy, is this you ? Can 
it be possible ! ” The one arm came round the boy and 
drew him close. 

“ So this is what made you stumble over your report of 


ON EXHIBITION 211 

last night,” Mr. Erskine went on, turning to Cherry ; “ you 
were hiding a secret.” Cherry blushed scarlet. 

“ Did I stumble, papa ? ” she said, carrying off the dishes. 

“ Very much, for you. Well, my boy, there is no need 
to ask you how you are. Stand off there, and let me have 
a good look.” 

“ I didn’t mean to come in war paint, sir,” said Mag- 
nus, as he obeyed; “but they said at home you would 
want to see it.” 

“ Of course I do. Well, they certainly turn out — showy 
fellows over there.” Mr. Erskine hesitated over his ad- 
jective, as if to choose a safe one. Cherry bit her lips, Mag- 
nus laughed and coloured too. 

“ They try for it,” he said ; “ but we hope to be useful 
also, some day, Mr. Erskine.” 

“ Of all the ‘ some days ’ for being useful, I have ever 
found to-day the very best. Sit down and give an account 
of yourself. Let the cloth wait, Cherry. I suppose 
you want to hear it all, too. Unless you heard it last 
night.” 

“No, indeed, sir,” said Magnus. “I did not have a 
chance to tell her half.” This with a glance at Cherry, 
which she did not mean to see. 

“ Papa,” she said, “ it will take but a minute to finish 
the table, and then we can listen so much better.” 

“ Have your ow T n way, love,” her father answered, smil- 
ing. “ My dear love ! ” he said under his breath, watching 
her. Then he turned to Magnus. 

“ Of course we know a good deal about you,” he said, 
“ for we have read and reread your letters, but I think I 
can understand them better now. And so these are the 
famous bell buttons ? ” 

“ Yes, sir, the regulation sort.” 

“ Truly, they are pretty bright,” said Mr. Erskine, with 
an amused smile. “Are the coats still pocketless?” 


212 ON EXHIBITION 

Cadet Kindred disclosed the hiding place of his hand- 
kerchief. 

“I should call that hard lines,” said Mr. Erskine. “ Your 
mother gave us a description when she came home, and I 
rather think Cherry cried over it. ‘ What will Magnus do 
without pockets ? ’ she said. ‘ Because, you know, papa, if 
there was ever anything he did not have in his pocket, it 
was only what he could not find/ Do you remember, 
love ? ” 

“Papa,” said Cherry, much abashed at both the story 
and the laugh it brought, “I think it is enough to have 
said silly things without having them repeated.” 

She fetched her work basket, and placing herself at the 
other side of her father, took out some bit of white stuff, 
and began to fold and hem with great speed and dexterity. 
Magnus watched her, wishing it were something for him. 
He had now and then seen a girl with a crochet needle in 
these two years, or straining her eyes over a piece of mussed 
unhappy looking dr awn work, but everything about Cherry 
and her basket was as fresh as the morning. Her strip of 
muslin might have just come from the shop, and have gone 
straight back there again, for all the disturbance it had 
from her neat handling. 

“Yes, she’s a busy child,” said Mr. Erskine fondly, 
noting where the eyes were bent ; “ busy and sweet as the 
day is long. But come, Magnus, draw up your chair, and 
let us have the story. Of course, as I said, we have heard a 
great deal, but we want the whole thing now, don’t we, 
love ? Do you wear all that finery every day ? ” 

“ Yes sir, except when nobody is supposed to see us. We 
have an ugly, comfortable blouse for study, and meals, and 
recitations. With fatigue suits, of course, for drills.” 

“ Look your worst at recitations, hey ? I should think it 
good policy to look your best.” 

“ Wouldn’t make any difference with those old buffers,” 


ON EXHIBITION 213 

said Magnus. " They don’t oare if you fess perfectly frigid. 
They’d just as soon give you zero as anything else.” 

Mr. Erskine’s mouth took on a quizzical look. 

" Sounds like cold weather, doesn’t it, love?” he said. 
" But let us go on regularly. Suppose it was term time, 
how would your day begin ? ” 

" With the gun, always, sir. Unless I am boning Math, 
and have waked myself up for early study. I’m too much 
of a sleepyhead to do it often.” 

" Best not ; you need the sleep.” 

" Yes, but when you want to max it, and have been get- 
ting two-nine for three days running, you see that will not 
do,” said Magnus. "And I will not bugle; and I can’t 
fudge worth a cent.” 

The comical look passed into a laugh this time, low and 
very pleasant. Cherry joining in, after a vain attempt to 
keep herself quiet. 

" Next in prominence to the gun comes breakfast, I sup- 
pose,” said Mr. Erskine. 

"Yes, breakfast — slumgudgeon stew, and the rest of 
it,” said Magnus. " But the bread and butter and milk are 
always good. They’ve taken to calling the roll after break- 
fast, as well as before, in case slumgudgeon should have 
laid some slain man under the table. Then comes a bit of 
release from quarters. If I’ve been fizzling lately, maybe I 
put in the time on French; but I am more apt to take a 
walk.” 

" That is well,” said Mr. Erskine. " A brisk walk puts 
the brain in good order.” 

"It’s not always a brisk walk, though,” said Magnus. 
" Most often I go dawdling along with some girl.” 

And now Cherry was so still that only the swift-flying 
needle seemed to move. Mr. Erskine looked amused. 

"I should think that a poor preparing for the section 
room,” he said. 


214 


ON EXHIBITION 

“ Can’t be helped if it is,” said Magnus. “ There’s such 
a lot of girls — and summer girls — about, it takes every 
minute you can get. Chappy comes up and says: ‘Kin, 
just give my sister a walk, will you? Awfully nice girl, 
but if I don’t bone a little I’ll be found in French, sure 
guns. And besides, my best girl is here.’ So I go. Then 
Miss Beguile says : ‘ Oh, Mr. Kindred ! I’ve never seen 
Fort Putnam. Please take me!’” 

How they both laugh at him — Cherry holding back a 
little, then letting her merry notes ring in. 

“ That sounds stringent,” said Mr. Erskine. “ Do you 
notice, love, his fine distinction between ‘ girls ’ and ‘ sum- 
mer girls’? That is something we simple people know 
nothing of. By the way, I suppose you must be a summer 
girl — as he never sees you in the winter.” 

“ If anyone ever dares call her a summer girl,” said Mr. 
Kindred promptly, “ I’ll knock him down quicker than he 
ever had it done before.” 

“Hands off! I’ll not call her so,” said Mr. Erskine, 
laughing. “ She is an everyday girl, and better each time 
But Magnus, suppose your best girl happens to be also on 
hand?” 

“ She never is, sir. She has not been at the Point since 
I went there.” 

“ Hard on you, if she went there before ; you speak as if 
she were a fixed fact. Do you know, Magnus, I am rather 
sorry to hear that.” 

“Why, sir?” demanded Magnus, noting the pulsating 
colour in the fair face bent over the needlework. 

“ Well, when I thought of it, I hoped you would keep 
clear of all such entanglements till you knew what you 
wanted.” 

“I did, sir.” 

“ Oh, of course ! I beg pardon ; I should have said till 
you had seen a little more of the world.” 


215 


ON EXHIBITION 

“ Do you think the world is the place to choose, sir ? ” 

Mr. Erskine smiled, half sorrowfully. 

“ I have only an old matchlock,” he said, “ and cannot 
cope with you young sharpshooters. But my boy, what I 
meant was this. When the boy goes off to college and grows 
into new mental strength and riches, and the girl stays at 
home and gets not half a chance, poor child, to do anything 
but wash dishes or (now do not glower at me) perhaps does 
not wish for higher things, then the man comes home 
raised to a plane where she is not fitted to stand by his side, 
and she can never be the helpmeet for him that she should.” 

Magnus listened respectfully ; watching that lovely, flit- 
ting colour, it was not hard to sit still. 

“ You think,” he said, “ that some girls wouldn’t amount 
to much at a one-company post. When a man was hard up 
for comrades ? ” 

“ Not unless they were c best girls 9 in truth.” 

“ Oh, well, mine is,” said Magnus confidently, “ the 
very bestest sort. I don’t know how much she knows — but 
if I stay at the Academy two years longer I shall have a 
stuffed head, full enough to lend on every occasion. Be- 
sides, it’s not needful for a man’s peace of mind that his 
wife should understand wave motion, is it, sir?” 

Mr. Erskine laughed at him, and Cherry laughed too, 
though now colouring furiously. 

“ I suppose it is not needful,” her father said, not notic- 
ing her, “ unless in practice. Well, I hope it will turn out 
all right for you. I had a friend, Magnus, who got en- 
tangled, as I call it, very early, went away to college, and 
when he came back with all his honours, his mother forbade 
the bans on that distinct plea; she said the girl was too 
ignorant. I think my friend would have gone straight on 
through it all, but the girl was not of that sort. She re- 
fused to enter any family by the side door. So they 
waited, the engagement was virtually broken, and years 


216 ON EXHIBITION 

went by. Then the mother died, the man sought his old 
love and married her. But Magnus, the girl had spent 
those years not in lamenting, not in flirting, but in solid, 
hard study. So that when at last they went forth in life 
together she had passed him, and was the better educated 
of the two.” 

What was Cherry laughing at? For while the cheeks 
had not all cooled down, the lips had parted in but half- 
controlled curls of fun. 

“ Well, if she was proficient in warped surfaces, I hope 
they enjoyed talking it over in their play-spells,” said Mag- 
nus. “ Fve no use for some of those things, they sift out 
too many good men. We all felt bad to have Chuck go.” 

“ Finished his course ? ” said Mr. Erskine. 

"At West Point, sir; graduated at the wrong end, 
dropped. He did everything to stay ; ran a light after taps, 
cut society, and sat night after night with his feet in cold 
water and his hands in his hair (what there was of it),” 
Magnus added in parenthesis. “ But nothing did any good ; 
he’d go next day and fess on a clean board. ‘ Mr. Simp- 
kins,’ the instructor asked him one day, ‘ are you as stupid 
at drill as you are in the section room? ’ And Chuck 
turned with the blandest face and answered: ‘ Nigh on to 
it, Lieutenant ! ’ And he was.” 

How the listeners laughed again. 

“But that was Simpkins,” Cherry remarked. “You 
said ‘ Chuck.’ ” 

“ ‘ Chuck ’ was his cadet name.” 

“ Do they name everyone ? ” asked Mr. Erskine. 

“ Very generally. But some names go with the office. 
The fattest man in the class is < Tubs,’ and the oldest 
‘ Daddy ’ ; while the cleanest-face man in all the Corps may 
be ‘ mud,’ because his pred. or his resemblance owned the 
name. ‘ Deacon ’ and ‘ Squire ’, ‘ Mile-High ’ and 

* Shorty ’, ‘ Pretty J ones ’ and ‘ Lady Crane.’ ” 


217 


ON EXHIBITION 

“What is yours?” said Cherry. 

“ Only ‘ Kin ’ ; sometimes with the ‘ Kith 5 added. Do 
you see ? ” 

“ I see that you are a very wide-awake set of boys,” said 
Mr. Erskine. Cherry slowly pulled off her thimble. 

“Papa,” she said, “I sent word that they must all 
come here to dinner, and it is time for me to go and see to 
things.” 

“I will come and help,” said Magnus. 

“ Thank you, no,” Cherry answered him gaily. “ House- 
keeping is one of the few things you have not studied. 
Stay and talk to your mother, she is just here.” 

So while the two girls followed Cherry, the other three 
people sat talking over many things, the two elders closely 
scanning the young cadet ; and he, all unconscious of their 
scrutiny, showing himself just as he was in truth. Cer- 
tainly the stories and pranks he rattled off were full of mis- 
chief, and as surely they gave small token of a reverent 
respect for regulations. But there was no taint of anything 
mean or low, no word that savoured of “ conduct unbecom- 
ing an officer and a gentleman.” The mother breathed 
freer with every new light thrown upon his West Point 
life, and felt that her boy had come back to her pure as he 
had gone away. The eyes of the two old friends met in 
joyful sympathy time and again, as Magnus talked and told, 
and their laughter had no reserve of anxious questioning. 
And when at last Magnus detailed himself to go and look 
after the girls and dinner, Mr. Erskine stretched out his 
hand to the happy mother. 

“ He is a splendid fellow,” he said ; “ a grand boy ! I 
congratulate you with all my heart.” 


XXIX 


SKIRMISHING 

0 wha can prudence think upon, 

And sic a lassie by him? 

O wha can prudence think upon, 

And sae in love as 1 am? 

— Old Song. 

M AGNUS, meanwhile, with quite as much of the 
“ boy ” as the “ grand ” about him, despite his 
inches, tiptoed off along passages and through 
doorways that he knew by heart, following the hum of 
voices. So presently came out into the small summer 
kitchen, where a pleasant smell of good cookery steamed 
and puffed and whiffed from various vessels within and 
upon the stove. Dishes stood ready on the table, with white- 
covered pans of rolls just waiting to be baked, but save the 
old cat, winking and blinking by the oven door, there was 
nobody in charge. 

Magnus gave her a toss up in the air for old times’ sake, 
peeped cautiously out at the broad back steps, then let 
himself easily down through the open window and came 
round the other way upon the scene of the sweet chatter that 
was going on. 

The three girls were on the steps, Rose and Violet hull- 
ing strawberries, while Cherry in a wide check apron, sat on 
the lowest step of all with a basket of lettuce at her side, 
picking over the fresh green leaves, and dropping them 
into a pan of cold water. A thick clump of lilac bushes 
served as a screen. 

“ Do you know,” Rose was saying, “ I cannot believe it, 
218 


SKIRMISHING 219 

yet. I think I cried for joy a little bit, when I waked 
up in the night and remembered that Magnus was really 
here.” 

" And doesn’t he look well ? ” said Violet ; “ and isn’t he 
a beauty ? ” 

“ Do not tell him that,” Cherry answered with discre- 
tion. She would have given a ready enough answer a week 
ago, but somehow, with the continent no more between 
them, the young damsel had grown wary. 

"I’m afraid everybody else will tell him,” said Rose. 
" But he is not spoiled a bit yet. Don’t you think so ? ” 

“ Not a bit.” 

It was a very mild way of giving her estimate, and 
Cherry scolded herself that she could not answer freely, 
as she had always done ; called herself to account for the 
shyness which had sprung into life with, indeed, the very 
first coming of that photograph. 

“ I am such a goose ! ” poor Cherry thought, bending 
down low over the lettuce basket. “ What shall I do to my- 
self ? If only he had not acted so last night ! ” 

And just here, by way of composing matters, two hands 
came softly round her head, and were laid lightly and re- 
spectfully upon her eyes. It was one of his old teasing ways 
with her. 

Cherry’s start passed almost into a tremor. She put 
up her hands to remove the obstruction, and they were taken 
and held fast; and what more Magnus might have dared 
had there been no witnesses, will never be known. 

Cherry lifted her face, trying to speak sternly. 

“ Magnus,” she said, " you have not improved one bit. 
I thought West Point was to make a man of you — or a bet- 
ter man — or something.” 

“ It has made ‘ something ’ of me,” he retorted, gazing 
down at her. “ Give you three guesses.” 

“ Too much else to do. Set that pan of lettuce on the 


220 


SKIRMISHING 

table, please. Don’t you see how busy lam?” And Cherry 
drew towards her a basket of green peas and began to shell 
with all her might. 

“ I see it — to the depths of my heart,” Magnus answered 
as he did her bidding. “ Here, Viola, give us your apron. 
If I don’t sit down and help this girl, I shall have her 
fainting away on my hands.” 

“ No, you will not,” Cherry said very decidedly. 

But Magnus spied a spare apron on a nail, and, tying it 
carefully round his neck, he put himself down on the door- 
step, and dived in among the pea pods. Always taking, if 
he could, the very one of which Cherry had laid hold, and 
then dropping that and seizing her fingers, and then mys- 
teriously scattering the peas from his own hands or shak- 
ing them out of hers, so that the rolling things had to be 
sought on all sides. Which last process Cadet Kindred 
pursued so zealously that more than once his face and 
Cherry’s shining locks came very near together. 

The sisters looked on, laughing and delighted. For just 
so those two had teased and scolded and played together, 
since they were big enough to play, and to see it all go on 
again in the old fashion was too good for anything. Of the 
subtile difference that had crept in, their young eyes took 
no note. And Cherry herself tried hard to ignore it, laugh- 
ing with the rest, and very well holding her own, but dimly 
conscious all the while that things she would have ventured 
once, she did not venture now. 

“ Boy, why do yoni tie that string round your neck? ” 
said Rose. “ Have you forgotten how aprons are worn? ” 

“ A lost art. But this is the improved style, which I 
mean to introduce at West Point. I cannot see how the 
Tactical Department has overlooked aprons so long. 
We’re too young to know when to wear overcoats, so aprons 
to keep our trousers clean would be just the thing. I’ll in- 
troduce them.” 


SKIRMISHING 221 

“ When you go back, I suppose,” said Rose sarcastically. 
“ I’ll lend you mine for a pattern.” 

“ When I go back as Com.,” Magnus answered with dig- 
nity. “ When I am Com. and Cherry is Supe. then you’ll 
see.” 

“ You could see now, if you would look,” said Cherry, as 
a podful of peas rolled down the step. 

“I am looking with all my eyes. — And they dare to call 
you a summer girl ! ” Magnus broke forth, watching the 
lovely pink cloud of colour that came and went with such 
swift changes. 

“Will you please tell us what a summer girl is like?” 
said Violet. “ She has danced about a good deal in your 
letters, but we everyday people don’t know what she is. 
Come, boy, describe her.” 

“ Her ! ” Magnus repeated. “ She is to the full as plural 
as she is singular.” 

“ Many of them at West Point, are there ? ” said Rose. 

“ Car loads ; stunning, too, as they can be, some of them. 
Take your breath away. Say, girls, where’s the old banjo? 
In existence yet ? ” 

“ Oh, dear, yes,” said Rose. “ Only no one has played it 
since you went away.” 

“And it is here, too,” said Violet. “Mother made us 
bring it this morning, because she was sure Mr. Erskine 
would like to hear you sing.” 

Magnus laughed. 

“ Thought he couldn’t wait until to-morrow,” he 
said. “Or knew she couldn’t. Mammy hasn’t changed, 
that is plain. But I shall sing to Miss Erskine first. 
About her namesake — and some other things.” 

He jumped up and went for the banjo, placing himself 
then in the doorway where he could look down upon Cherry. 
She had put away the peas, and now had in her hand a 
bowl of yellow cream, which she was softly beating to a 


222 SKIRMISHING 

stiff froth. The other girls had finished their berries, and 
sat near her on the steps. Beyond, the honey bees hummed 
over clover and mignonette, the little brook tinkled along 
unseen. Behind him, Magnus could hear the pleasant mur- 
mur of the talk that went on within the house. Then a 
cow lifted up her voice and gave a long, plaintive moo, and 
a wren under the eaves poured out new tidings of the wealth 
that came to her every five minutes. Magnus leaned back 
his head against the doorpost and listened. 

“ That bird sings for all she is worth,” he said. It took 
such hold of him ; the sweet home air and sounds and sun- 
shine, the two dear girls watching him with their loving ad- 
miration, and the yet dearer, whose bent-down face told 
more than she meant it should, the sights and scents from 
hayfields and hills — it came upon Magnus Kindred like a 
spell. And as with it all mingled in the echoes of music 
from the graduating parade, he struck a few notes on the 
old banjo* and then sang out from the depths of his heart : 

“Home, home! Sweet, sweet home, 

O there’s no place like home! 

There is no place like home.” 

Cadet Kindred had by nature a rather rarely fine voice. 
Art had indeed never tutored nor trained it, but it was one 
of those voices which can never by possibility sing out of 
tune or time, and in the two years he had been away, ex- 
ercise and growth had both strengthened and sweetened it ; 
a sort of revelation now to the listening girls. 

The two sisters gazed at him as if nobody had ever sung 
before ; Cherry’s beater went slower and softer, then 
stopped, and the girl sat in breathless listening; until her 
lips began to tremble, and there came such a surge of sor- 
row and sympathy and delight in the music, and — and — 
everything else ; that Cherry laid one hand upon her breast 
as if to quiet and keep it down, and at first dared not look 
at the singer, and then could not take her eyes away. 


223 


SKIRMISHING 

As for Magnus, he had thrown himself into the music, 
as was his wont, being for the time all rapt and uncon- 
scious of other things. From “ Sweet Home ” to “ Lang 
Syne ” — back and forth as the band had done — so went the 
voice, and it, was not until the words woke up some special 
association that Magnus took note of the sweet, pitiful eyes 
that were fixed on him. The other girls had pulled out 
their handkerchiefs. 

“ We twa hae paidlet in the burn, 

Frae morning sun till dine; 

But we’ve wandered mony a weary fit, 

Sen auld lang syne.” 

“That is just what we did, Cerise — do you remember? 
And just what I have done, since.” 

“ But oh, Magnus ! ” she cried, “ were you so homesick 
as that ? ” 

“ Homesick ? Your blue apron is rose-colour to it.” 

“ I am glad we did not know,” Cherry said with a long 
breath, beginning slowly to beat her cream. “You were 
very good not to tell.” 

“ And did nobody help you or speak to you ? ” questioned 
the two young sisters, coming up nearer to sit at his 
feet. 

“ I had help enough,” said Magnus, softly twanging the 
strings of his banjo. “ Everybody from the Com. to the 
third-class corporals bade me brace up. And if I wanted a 
lonely walk in the open air on Saturday, I had only to wear 
my hair long and dishevelled as a sign of grief, and they’d 
give to me without asking. And if I dead beat and went to 
the Hospital to get a chance to mope a little. Dr. Pestle 
would give me some compound to make me sick, lest I 
should lose my time and be down there for nothing. The 
Tacs were so afraid I should ‘ wet my couch with briny 
tears’ that they made me keep the old thing tight rolled 
up till bed time. I was too tired to cry, then.” 


224 


SKIRMISHING 

“ Queer help,” said Rose. 

« The best that could be, Rosy. They made me mad, and 
then I was all right.” 

“ I should call that poor comfort,” said Violet. 

“ Nothing like it, however,” said Magnus. “ Dries up 
your feelings quicker than fourteen pocket-handkerchiefs, 
You owe the world one, and you mean to live till you pay 
it. So suicide can wait.” 

“ Magnus, I wish you would not talk so,” Cherry said 
appealingly. 

“ Now there is Cerise,” Magnus went on. “ If I could 
once make her thoroughly angry with me, she wouldn’t 
mind anything else that happened. The thing is how. I 
haven’t found out yet.” 

“ And you never will,” said Rose. Ci You cannot do it.” 

“ I cannot, hey ? That is good to know. Gives me great 
freedom of action. I’ll store up the information for future 
use.” 

“ What makes you call her Cerise ? ” said Rose. 

“ Practising my French. Of course I never thought of 
her in common English when I was away.” 

“ Cherry, he cannot be with you five minutes without 
beginning to tease,” said the girls, laughing. “ He is the 
very same boy he always was.” 

“ I think he has made good progress in the art of telling 
fibs,” said Cherry in turn. 

“ Fibs ! ” Magnus repeated, with much unworded scorn. 
“ You’ll see about that. I mean to tell the truth while I am 
home now, if I never do again.” And with the most funny, 
rollicking tone Mr. Kindred 'caught up his banjo and dashed 
off into “ The Girl I Left Behind Me ” ; rattling it out, 
throwing in recitative here and there, and putting such 
spirit and vim into the performance that now the girls all 
laughed till they nearly cried again; but this time Cherry 
kept her eyes on her cream. 


SKIRMISHING 225 


Then quick and easily as the band had done, Magnus 
dropped once more into the plaintive burden of : 

“ Home, home; sweet, sweet home; 

There is no place like home, — 

There is no place like home.” 

But now, when he stopped playing, his two sisters came 
round him caressing him, hanging upon him, and even Mrs. 
Kindred looked in from the other room and said : 

“ Magnus, don’t play that any more. You break my 
heart. I shall never be able to let you go back again.” 

Magnus laid the banjo aside. 

“ Don’t fret now, mammy,” he said. “ It has been pretty 
tough, but the worst is over.” 


/ 


XXX 


A MORNING TALK 

Hope rules a land forever green: 

All powers that serve the bright-eyed queen 
Are confident and gay. 

Clouds at her bidding disappear; 

Points she to aught ? The bliss draws near, 

And fancy rules the way. 

—Wordsworth. 

T HAT was a wonderful day. But it may be re- 
marked, that Mr. Kindred went home more than 
ever discontented with the length of the hill. 

“ Living up there,” he said, “ when we are all down here. 
It is too bad. How many times a month does Cherry walk 
down here in the sun?” 

“ She need not walk in the sun,” said the girls, laugh- 
ing at him. “ There is shade all the way if she wants it. 
Why, she comes every day, you foolish boy.” 

“ At what hour, generally, you foolish girl ? ” 

“ Oh, all sorts of times,” said Violet; “ after breafast, 
and before dinner, and after tea. But they are both coming 
down to-day to dine with us.” 

“ I think I will just go up and make sure they under- 
stand that,” said Magnus. “ Cherry does not always take 
up an idea as quick as she might.” 

And away he dashed out of the house and began to 
double-time it up the hill, the three women at home watch- 
ing from the window in admiring joy. 

“ He is the best looking fellow that ever was,” said Rose. 
And the mother answered as Cherry had done : 

“ Yes, but do not tell him so.” 

m 


A MORNING TALK 


22 ? 


Then the girls laughed. 

“ Oh, mother,” they cried, “ you do it, every time you look 
at him.” 

Magnus meanwhile sped lightly up the hill. He had his 
reasons for liking to go at this particular time ; the picture 
yesterday was too lovely for him not to long to see 
it again, and it might be that Cherry read to her father 
every morning. Then what was the book? Cherry had 
closed it so suddenly upon his coming, that he caught no 
glimpse of the inside; hut the outside stirred his curiosity. 
It was an old book, bound in the dainty old-time vellum, 
once marked and embossed with gold; but that was much 
faded and worn away. It did not look like a Bible, and 
yet that, Magnus felt, was the correct thing for Cherry — 
such a girl as she was — to be reading to her father at break- 
fast time. Other people’s duties are marked out in such 
very distinct lines that even colour blindness is rarely 
doubtful over them. 

But no murmur of voices met him, as he paused at the 
front door ; and something warned him to go quietly round 
the house to the steps that ran down into the garden. And 
sure enough, he had his picture, but a different one this 
time. 

A little white-covered tray on the upper step held bread 
and milk and berries, and on the step below sat Cherry, with 
a book in her lap. She jumped up at the sound of his 
footfall, and put the book away, coming back instantly to 
her place. 

“ Mr. Erskine out ? ” Magnus asked, as he took position 
at her feet. 

“ Oh, no, not out. It is one of the days when that old 
bullet wound gives so much trouble that the best thing is to 
keep quite still.” 

“ You don’t read to him, such days ? ” 

“He has had the reading — and he had his breakfast,” 


228 


A MORNING TALK 


said Cherry ; " but he made me come down and take mine 
in the fresh air.” 

"And instead of doing it, you fall to reading again,” 
said Magnus, reaching up his hand to the milk pitcher and 
filling her glass. " Please to begin at once.” 

" Please to have some too, then. There are more straw- 
berries on the table inside.” 

"Two breakfasts to-day, against some other morning 
when I shall have none,” said Magnus. "What are you 
waiting for ? Something else I should get ? ” For Cherry 
sat lingering, and had not touched her spoon. 

"Well?” Magnus repeated, watching her. He had a 
spoonful of berries on the way to his mouth, and still her 
hands had not stirred. 

"But Magnus — you haven’t — will you ask the bless- 
ing ? ” Cherry said. 

The berries came down with a rush. 

" Go on,” he said, with an odd change in his voice. And 
Cherry bent her head and spoke the few sweet words 
as simply and gladly as if they were but a breath of 
native air. Magnus was stirred more than he cared to 
own. 

" Heaven and earth come pretty close together where you 
are,” he broke out, eating his berries and forgetting the 
sugar. 

"Where anybody is,” said Cherry. "Heaven must be 
near when the Lord is close by, ‘ with you,’ and ‘ at your 
right hand.’ ” 

She was all changed this morning ; so quiet, so self-pos- 
sessed. 

" Well, you see,” Magnus went on impulsively, " one gets 
out of practice. I’ve not heard a blessing asked for two 
years, till I came home. Except when mother and I had 
our picnic.” 

" Not in your mess hall ? ” 


229 


A MORNING TALK 

“ Well, I should say not ! ” 

“ But, Magnus •” 

“ What?” 

“ You can always ask one silently for yourself.” 

Magnus gave a long groan. 

“ I believe your flag is sixty feet long,” he said. “ What 
do you suppose the other three hundred men would say to 
me?” 

“ I do not know.” 

“ Nor care, I dare say. Well, to begin, they’d give me 
a silence, just as like as not.” 

“A what?” 

“ A silence. That’s what we give a Tac who oversteps 
bounds, or a party of women who are brought in to see the 
animals feed. There’s a universal din up to that moment, 
and then every man drops his knife and fork, stops his 
tongue, and looks. You don’t know what silence means 
till you’ve heard that.” 

“What a very queer custom! And that is what they 
might do to you? But it could not last long, I suppose, 
because they would have to eat their breakfast.” 

“ No, it would not last long ! ” said Magnus ironically. 
“ First Rig begins : ‘ Hello, Kin ! Most through ? Lose 
your breakfast ? ’ And Crane : ‘ Say, Kin ! Come and bless 
what’s left on our table.’ And Crinkem would yell : ‘ Shut 
up, and let him alone! He’s praying for strength to eat 
the steak.’ ” 

The girl’s colour flitted back and forth as he spoke ; then 
her eyes lighted up. 

“ It does not sound pleasant,” she said ; “ but Magnus, if 
I were you, I think I would try it.” 

“I don’t doubt you would,” said Magnus, thinking his 
own thoughts. “ Sixty feet long in all weathers. But 
Cerise, besides all that, there isn’t time. We have but just 
so many minutes for breakfast, anyhow ; and while I had 


230 


A MORNING TALK 

my eyes shut, somebody else might get my roll. No great 
gain, but still a loss.” 

“ That would be very sad,” said Cherry, with a comical 
smile. “ But then, you would enjoy the rest so much bet- 
ter. Magnus,” she went on seriously, “ did you ever think 
how many faint-hearted Christians there may be in the 
crowd who would take courage from you to do right ? ” 

“ And so help me face the silence ? ” 

“ It is grand to face wrong things for right reasons ! ” 
6aid Cherry, her eyes like two opals, showing their hidden 
fire. “‘And they departed from the Council, rejoicing 
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his 
name/ ” 

Magnus looked at her. 

“ Yes, talk to me,” he said. “ I want all the talking to I 
can get. But I can tell you, Cerise — do you mind my call- 
ing you so ? ” — he broke off abruptly. 

“ Why, no,” the girl answered. “ It does not sound quite 
natural.” 

“ Not like old times — no, of course not. Well, would 
you like Cherie better? I think I should,” said Mr. Kin- 
dred, watching the pink tinges with a delightful sense of 
having the reins in his own hands again. “It is more 
closely descriptive, and just as good for my French.” 

“ You are without question the most absurd boy this side 
of West Point ! ” said Cherry. “ Have you emptied your 
strawberry basket ? I must put these things away.” 

“ We must, indeed,” said Magnus, handling dishes and 
bearing them off into the house. “ You know I have come 
to take you back with me ? ” 

“ Have you ! It might have been wise — not to say civil 
— to state that before.” 

“But I don’t want to go,” said Magnus. “I’d rather 
have you all to myself here.” 

“Well, will you please stop practising your favourite 


231 


A MORNING TALK 

wave motion, and keep out of my way ? ” said Cherry, much 
hindered in her progress by finding Magnus before her at 
every turn. 

“ Haven’t studied it yet, — so there. Now, Cherry, you 
surely did not mind what I said about wave motion ? ” 

u Why should I mind ? ” 

“I mean what I said about women’s not needing to 
learn it.” 

“ If all the men understand it through and through, that 
might leave the women free for other work,” said Cherry 
critically, as if she were weighing the case. 

“ Ah ! ” said Magnus ; “ now you are beginning to talk 
like yourself. I haven’t half known you since I came 
home. Tease away, ma Cherie.” 

“ Magnus, don’t you want to run upstairs and get papa’s 
tray ? He must be done with it by this time.” 

“ Why, of course,” said Cadet Kindred. “ Only — this is 
the second time you have sent me to him, — and as I re- 
marked the other night ” 

“ I declare ! ” Cherry exclaimed, giving him a good sight 
of the fire sparks. But then she turned and darted away 
up some back staircase so fleetly and softly that he could 
not even tell by which way she had gone. And when the 
pursuer by ordinary routes had reached the room, Cherry 
was in calm conversation with her father. 

Mr. Erskine was sitting by the window, and certainly 
looked rather surprised at the headlong style in which 
Magnus rushed in; but smiled and shook hands very 
cordially. 

“ Cherry sent me to get your tray, sir,” the young man 
explained ; “ and she was so high-strung over my seeming 
hesitation that, after that, I stumbled upstairs as fast as I 
could.” 

“ I see — chaffing each other as usual,” said Mr. Erskine. 

“ Papa,” Cherry put in, safely ensconced now behind her 


232 A MORNING TALK 

father and her work-basket, "you must not believe one 
word these cadets say.” 

“ These cadets ! ” Magnus retorted. " Please to be more 
personal in your remarks. I stand up for the veracity of 
the Corps.” 

" And represent it, no doubt.” 

“ I wonder who is wandering into fib-land now,” said 
Magnus. " Mr. Erskine, if you take her at her word, and 
never believe anything I say, I shall live to see the day 
when, with tears in her eyes, she will assure you of my 
perfect truth and reliability.” 

“ Indeed you will not,” said Cherry. " Unless you live 
to be a hundred and ten.” 

Mr. Erskine laughed heartily. Just so had those two 
been sparring ever since they were in leading strings ; per- 
fect inseparables, but never together ten minutes without 
getting up a skirmish of some kind. 

" I am sorry this is one of your bad days, sir,” Magnus 
went on ; " but the sun is very bright, as you can see, sir, 
and the air is soft — you can feel that. I like to back up 
my words when I can. And perhaps you will kindly take 
hold of my arm, sir, and judge if it is likely to give way 
under the weight of your hand down the hill.” 

"All which means,” said Mr. Erskine, "that I am ex- 
pected by the dear people down there ? ” 

" Yes, sir. And I think mother will be disappointed if 
you don’t come — but I’ll scoot down and get a note from 
her to say so. And Rose will cry out, ‘ Oh, dear ! ’ and 
Violet will exclaim, ‘ Dear me ! ’ At least,” said Magnus, 
correcting himself, " it will be something like that. Even 
warped surfaces cannot always help a man to know just 
what a woman will say.” 

And Cadet Kindred stood back with the air of one who, 
having just sent a shell from the siege battery, and seen it 
hit the mark, feels that he deserves well of his country. 


233 


A MORNING TALK 

<e Why f warped surfaces ’ ? ” said Mr. Erskine, laughing 
up at the handsome young fellow, whom he loved next to 
his own daughter. 

“ Uncertain, sir. And incomprehensible. Greatest 
puzzle I know,” said Magnus. 

“ Well,” said his friend slowly, “you are a good per- 
suader, Magnus. Cherry, you are going, of course.” 

“ If you do, papa.” 

“ Not else? Then I must try. I know you want to see 
all you can of your old playmate. It is better than letters, 
isn’t it, love ? I can tell you, Magnus, there was no keep- 
ing her at home letter day, no matter what the weather 
was.” 

If Cherry sighed inwardly, “ Oh, papa ! ” she gave no 
sign. 

“ I am very happy to hear it, sir,” said Magnus, in his 
stateliest tones. “ It was beautiful filial devotion in 
Cherry. Of course she knew how anxious you were to know 
that, as yet, I was out of light prison. I hope she never 
took cold, or injured her health in any way, going out in all 
weathers to relieve your anxiety.” 

“ Truly, it was not all for me,” said Mr. Erskine. “ Do 
you remember, love, the week when the track was snowed 
up ? and the overdue letter that never came at all ? Mag- 
nus, those were dark days. I believe Cherry went down to 
the other house six times between sunrise and sunset; and 
then when at last the mail-bag came, our letter did not.” 

“ It was very beautiful of her to take so much trouble to 
quiet your mind, sir,” said Magnus, watching the swift, 
pulsating colour in Cherry’s fair cheek. 

“ Nay, I took very little of it to myself,” said Mr. Er- 
skine, going calmly on, as men will, through they know not 
what. “ My heart ached for her that day when she came 
back with her pale face, and said so patiently, ‘ We must 
wait till to-morrow, papa.’ Then at night they all came 


234 


A MORNING TALK 


up here ; and I had to say over everything I had ever known 
or heard about trains, letters, and — boys. You ought to 
be a good fellow, Magnus, with four such women-hearts 
watching over you.” 

“ Yes, sir. Don’t you think it might further the cause 
if they told me a little more about it ? ” said Magnus, with 
an innocent face. 

“Papa — he knows quite enough for his good,” Cherry 
remonstrated. 

“Yes, and he might not like to hear it all,” Mr. Er- 
skine went on, in the same unconscious fashion. “Poor 
little girl ! How her voice shook when she began to read 
to me that morning ! ” 

“What did she read, sir?” Magnus questioned, with an 
odd change in his own. 

“ I think we were in the Revelation just then. Were we 
not, love ? ” 

“ Yes, papa,” — very low. 

“ Yes, I remember. ‘ The sea of glass/ and * them that 
had gotten the victory.’ Cherry read it as if she was ready 
to have the time come.” 

“ Papa ! ” — it was almost a cry. “ Why will you go back 
and bring that all up again? Cannot you find pleasanter 
things to tell him ? ” 

“ No, he cannot, and you know it very well,” said Mag- 
nus decidedly. “ Leave fib-land to me. I wish you would 
6how me the very chapter, please, Mr. Erskine.” 

“ Hand me the book — there it is, love, on my table.” 

“I’ll bring you another, papa, — ” and Cherry went 
swiftly to the next room. 

Magnus, however, had his own private reasons for 
thwarting her whenever he could, if it was only in the 
choice of a book; and before she could get back he had 
brought the other volume to Mr. Erskine. 

“ Papa, this is better/’ Cherry said, coming in; but Mag- 


A MORNING TALK 235 

nns shook his head at her, and she silently came down to 
her seat again. Then came a surprise. 

Magnus had been so busy watching her that neither book 
had had much notice. Now, as Mr. Erskine turned the 
leaves, saying: “Here, this is the place,” Magnus bent 
down over his friend’s shoulder to look, and behold! he 
could not read one word. It might be the Revelation — but 
it was also Greek. At least, so he supposed. 

“Well, which was the book she was reading from that 
day?” he said, looking at Cherry, who now sat perfectly 
still, with the other Testament in her lap and her hands 
folded upon it. And if it had not been impossible, he 
would have thought she was biting her lips hard to keep 
back a laugh. 

“This is the very one,” said Mr. Erskine, all uncon- 
scious. “ She always reads in this — we both like it better. 
It is worn on the outside,” he went on, turning the book 
over and giving the vellum affectionate touches, “but I 
like these old bindings, don’t you? The time-stained 
cover for the things which time can neither stain nor wear 
out. This was the book and the place where she read that 
morning.” 

“ I should like to hear her read it now,” said Cadet Kin- 
dred, feeling considerably dazed. 

“ Read it to him, love,” said Mr. Erskine, giving the old 
book to her; and without raising her eyes Cherry obeyed, 
but in tones so low, that but for their clearness, the eager 
listener could hardly have caught one word. Understand 
one word he did not. 

“ Magnificent, are they not ? ” said Mr. Erskine. “ But 
the English version holds its own,” he added mus- 
ingly. 

“ And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire ; 
and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and 
over his image, and over his mark, and over the number 


236 A MORNING TALK 

of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of 
God/ 

“ Yes, that was it. You see, my boy, if you had indeed 
gotten the victory, and passed on into the exceeding glory 
and the joy, it did not so much matter if, for a little space, 
we broke our hearts down here.” 

It was a strange, wholesome ten minutes for Cadet Kin- 
dred; and I think as he stood there looking down at Cherry, 
he took the measure of his smallest storm flag more ac- 
curately than he had ever done before. In fact he could 
hardly find it to measure, but seemed to hear the empty 
halyards whipping against the staff. And that girl had 
been staying her heart with the thought of his victory and 
crown! 

“ That was the first hard day,” said Mr. Erskine ; “ and 
the letters did not come for a week. What was our next 
reading, love ? Magnus would like to hear them all.” 

But now Cherry’s answer burst forth : 

“ Papa — I cannot ! ” 

The father’s hand came tenderly on her head. 

“ That is too much to ask,” he said. “ Those days are 
better out of sight. Go and get your hat, love, and we 
will try to reach our dear friends down the hill. Poor little 
girl ! ” he said, as Cherry sprang away ; “ it was a very hard 
time for her. And everybody looked to her for comfort. 
Violet would come up and cry on her shoulder, and Rose 
would beg her to go down and talk to your mother; and 
Cherry went and came, and reasoned and hunted up pos- 
sible causes, and cheered everybody but herself. With a 
smile always ready, but pale as the winter sunshine. You 
see the lines were down, so that we could not telegraph, and 
when the first train broke through, even then there was no 
letter. She is a brave heart.” 

“ She is the very dearest girl in all the world ! ” Magnus 
said eagerly. 


237 


A MORNING TALK 

“ About that,” her father answered — "well, love, here 
you are. Now we shall see what this brave young shoul- 
der that is so ready to be useful, can do.” 

"Then, as you will not need me, papa, I will run on 
ahead,” and Cherry slipped in among the trees, and was 
out of sight directly. 


XXXI 


THE SUMMER GIRL 

No man has complained that you have discoursed too long on any 
subject, for you leave us in an eagerness of hearing more. 

— Dryden. 

T HE other two walked slowly on. They had al- 
ways been cronies, as a man and even a small 
boy can be ; and now Magnus found his old friend 
full of the keenest interest in all the new life and varying 
work of which the young cadet had so much to tell. Slowly 
down the pretty hill they went; Mr. Erskine taking from 
Magnus what help he could for his lame side, and the 
cadet trying to make the regulation step know its place. 
And it was so pleasant to see, so like the dear old times, 
that the four at the cottage dropped everything to watch 
them as they came. Then Mrs. Kindred hurried out to 
welcome her guest, the two sisters got hold of Magnus, and 
Cherry went quietly back to finish setting the table. 

I doubt she was not minding her business too closely, 
smiling to herself over the words and laughter that came 
past the half-open door of the closet where she was sorting 
out spoons; for she never heard what stealthy steps drew 
near, and her first warning of danger was the sudden dark- 
ening of the closet by the shutting of the door. Cherry 
sprang towards it just in time to hear the bolt shot and 
the key withdrawn. Then came a struggle outside. 

“ Oh, Magnus, stop ! Cherry is in there ! ” 

“ Safe as possible.” 

“ Give me the key ! She wants to be out here.” 

238 


239 


THE SUMMER GIRL 

“ Then why did she go in ? ” 

“ She went for the spoons, you intolerable boy,” said 
Violet. 

“Do to talk of,” said Magnus coolly. “No, my dear; 
she went because this intolerable boy was around. So you 
perceive it is very kind of me to keep her where she cannot 
see him. Come, chicks ; let’s get the old banjo, and I’ll sing 
you the e Song of the Summer Girl.’ ” 

“ If you sing one single note when Cherry is not by to 
hear, we will stop our ears,” said Rose. 

“ Then you will not be able to tell her about it after- 
wards,” said Magnus. “ Come along.” 

“ Well, you cannot have your dinner till we get the 
spoons,” said Violet. 

“ At West Point we eat with forks — when we have them,” 
said Magnus. “When we do not, we take our fingers. 
Where is that banjo ? ” 

The girls followed him, talking and scolding and threat- 
ening to tell Mr. Erskine, but Cherry had no idea of wait- 
ing for outside help. She was a girl of resources, and the 
case in hand was not very hard. For this was an outside 
lock, simply screwed on; an old knife made a fair screw- 
driver; and, when Magnus had just reached the next room, 
a soft chink made him look round, and there was Cherry, 
calmly putting the spoons in place. 

“ Where did you come from? ” he said, turning back. 

“ The spoon drawer. Do I understand that West Point 
cadets scorn both spoons and forks ? ” 

“ I’ll teach you something about West Point cadets, be- 
fore I go,” Magnus asserted, stepping towards her. 

“ How good of you ! ” said Cherry mockingly, as she 
slipped round the table. “ We’re such an ignorant set out 
here. Magnus, if you would announce a lecture on warped 
surfaces, I really think it would draw.” 

What Magnus would have said or done, and how Cherry 


240 


THE SUMMER GIRL 


might have suffered for her temerity, does not appear. 
Rose came in, bearing a dish of such chicken pot-pie as 
Magnus declared never grew on a reservation; Violet fol- 
lowed with potatoes and peas and beets — the pretty red, 
white, and green of the summer garden; and they all sat 
down to dinner. Then Magnus found that he had neither 
spoon nor fork. 

“ Why, Violet, how careless,” the mother said, as he made 
known the fact. 

“ No, mamma, not I.” 

“ Mrs. Kindred,” said Cherry, “ Magnus said that West 
Point cadets could eat with their fingers, so I thought if 
he enjoyed it, we should like to see how it was done. And 
it would be one less to wash. And the chickens are cut 
up,” she added gravely. Mrs. Kindred laughed. 

“ If you two are having a fight, I’ll keep out,” she said. 
“ Go and help yourself, Magnus.” And this he would have 
done from Cherry’s plate, if that young damsel had not laid 
fast hold of her property; so he took Violet’s instead. 

But it was a delightful dinner: what though the courses 
were few and simple, and the trained waiters only the three 
girls. Then the two elders carried Magnus off to the porch 
for another talk while the girls cleared the table, and then 
they also came out, bringing the banjo. 

“ Now for the summer girl ! ” they cried, and Magnus left 
his place for one on the steps at Cherry’s feet. 

" She has been called ( a summer girl,’ ” he said, “ and 
I want to see how she likes her portrait. This lay is 
named : ‘ The Idle of the Summer Girl.’ ” 

“ Your writing? ” said Rose. 

“ If you admire it, yes.” 

“ Dear me, child,” said Mrs. Kindred, “ do they waste 
your time out there writing poetry ? ” 

“ They don’t waste any of my time they get hold of, 
you’d better believe,” said Magnus. “ I should forget what 


THE SUMMER GIRL 


241 


time means if I didn’t filch a little for my own use, now 
and then. This is : ‘ The Idle of the Summer Girl. By 
Two Who Idled With Her/ Cadet Rig being the other 
party. All the weak lines are his. There’s another touch- 
ing ditty on the same theme, much sung in camp at the 
time of full moon, but it takes two to do it justice, as you 
can judge from a specimen verse.” 

Magnus twanged the banjo lugubriously, and began his 
song, changing voice for the supposed two singers, and 
giving the words of comment in his own : 

1st Cadet: “ O the Summer Girl has come to town.” 

2d Cadet: 4 ‘ Alas, my heart! ” 

1st Cadet: “ In a sky-scraper hat, and a trail— ing gown.” 

2d Cadet: “ Alas, my heart!” 

3 d Cadet: “ Steady on that, you haven’t got any.” 

At least four voices cried: 

“ Go on ! Go on ! ” 

“ Can’t,” said Magnus ; “ it exhausts my feelings. Too 
spoony.” 

“ Is that the way you talk to each other ? ” said Violet. 

“ Very much the way.” 

“ And does nobody take up the cudgels for the poor sum- 
mer girl ? ” inquired Mr. Erskine. 

“ Oh, I’ll take them up, if you wish,” said Magnus. 
“ My Idle does her justice,” and he dashed off into a tune 
crazy enough for a patchwork quilt : 

“ I sing the song of the Summer Girl; 

She feels for the lonely cadet. 

Her chocolate creams, in my very dreams 
I seem to taste them yet. 

(“ N. B. — The last ones weren’t fresh. Bought at the 
station probably.) 

“ The peaches she threw at my head at drill, 

The apples she dropped at my feet; 

The little pound cake that she made me take, 

First biting, to make it sweet.” 


242 


THE SUMMER GIRL 

“ Magnus — she didn’t ! ” 

“ Rose — she did ! ” 

“ And you eat it ? ” 

“ Tossed it over my shoulder while she bestowed one on 
Chappy. Robins aren’t fetched up particular, as I was. 
Why, that’s nothing ! ” 

“ Nothing? ” 

“No,” said Magnus. “When a girl puts a lump of 
sugar between her teeth and comes round offering everybody 
a bite, that is rather steep. 

“ And yet, long life to the Summer Girl! 

Far be it from me to flout her. 

She’s made in the shop, and she’s not tip-top, 

But what could we do without her? 

•• There were two spoons and a single dish, 

Two hearts that beat as one; 

When we sat by the wall before recall, 

Eating ice cream in the sun.’* 

A general shout of derision greeted this, except from 
Cherry, who had grown rather quiet over these extraordi- 
nary “ idles.” 

“ Well, you must have been homesick, I should say,” re- 
marked Rose. 

“ Why, Magnus, I did not know you had it in you to 
flirt,” said his mother. 

“ Don’t think I have, mammy, to any dangerous extent. 
What’s the row ? Can’t a man sing a song o’ sixpence with- 
out being immediately spotted for one of the blackbirds ? ” 

“ But eating out of the same dish ! ” said Violet. 

“ If you had been a year at West Point, you’d eat ice 
cream out of anything,” said Magnus, “ and almost with 
anybody. I am generally careful to keep far away on my 
own side, and to grow more modest as the partition wall 
grows thin.” 


THE SUMMER GIRL 243 

“ But you had no money,” said Mrs. Kindred. “ I can- 
not see where you got ice cream.” 

“ Summer girl stands treat. When you see a group of 
fainting cadets gathered round Delmonico’s, you may take 
your affidavit there’s a summer girl inside. Why, the 
amount of boodle that fair creature smuggles into camp 
and throws around generally would set a country store up 
in business.” 

“ Boodle ? ” queried Mr. Erskine. 

u Contraband sweets of life, sir.” 

“ But Magnus, you said smuggled,’ ” said his mother. 

“ Had to be smuggled, mammy, or it could never get in. 
Tacs would confiscate and eat it up. And it might dis- 
agree with some of ’em. Better let any number of cadets 
suffer from indigestion and go to the hospital than have 
Towser off duty for a single day.” 

“ My dear,” said Mrs. Kindred, trying hard to keep a 
grave face, “ I do not like to have you breaking rules.” 

“ Don’t like it myself,” said Magnus virtuously. “ They 
should not make ’em so fragile.” 

“ If they are fragile, keep off.”- 

“ Just can’t, mammy. Here we’ve had breakfast at half 
past six. Then we go head over heels into math, and heels 
over head into tan bark ; and not another regulation mouth- 
ful to be had till one o’clock. Flesh and blood can’t stand 
it, you know. We just have to have a barrel of apples 
handy, and a box of crackers ; and any other trifles we can 
pick up.” 

“ A barrel of apples ! ” said Rose. “ And ( smuggled 9 
in ! Wherever in the world do you keep them ? ” 

“ You are going to be such a favourite with the Tacs 
next summer, I think I will not tell,” said Magnus. 

“ Poor starved boy ! ” said Rose. u And he has been 
home two whole days, and not even half a dish of ice cream, 
yet.” 


244 


THE SUMMER GIRL 


“ I have had all the ice I want, thank you/’ said Cadet 
Kindred, looking up at Cherry, who as I said, had been 
very silent while all these other girls filled the air. “ Cream 
has been scarce. Perhaps if you two would stir up some 
sort of stuff to-morrow, Cherry would come down and freeze 
it.” 

“ You shall freeze it yourself,” said Violet. 

“ Agreed — with her to help me.” And laughing up at 
her with mischievous eyes, Magnus finished his song : 

“ But never you trust the Summer Girl, — 

Or you will find to your sorrow, 

That just as she smiled on Tubs to-day, 

She’ll smile on Daddy to-morrow.” 


4 


XXXII 

LAYING FOUNDATIONS 

There are three short and simple words, the hardest of all to pro- 
nounce in any language, but which no man or nation that cannot 
utter, can claim to have arrived at manhood. Those words are, I 
was wrong. —James Russell Lowell. 

T HE early tea was over, and long shadows were 
falling as the little party broke up. The three 
girls were still debating what sort of ice cream 
they should make, when just beyond the gate a neighbour, 
driving by, offered Mr. Erskine a seat in his buggy. Then 
Magnus turned to his sisters. 

" Stay here, you girls, ” he said. " I have to speak to 
Cherry very seriously; and I doubt if she likes to be lec- 
tured before people. Run in.” 

The girls laughed and obeyed; but perhaps Cherry did 
not choose to wait for lectures, nor mean to have them, for 
she spoke first. They were going slowly up the hill, Mag- 
nus falling into the West Point saunter, to which Cherry 
rather unwillingly conformed. 

"We are walking very slow,” she ventured. " And you 
used to walk so fast.” 

" West Point style. The very first day they impressed it 
upon my mind that fast walkers want to get somewhere. 
And, Cerise, just now I do not.” 

"Magnus,” she said suddenly, "what did you really 
mean by a ‘ storm flag 9 ? ” 

" Ah ! ” said Cadet Kindred, in a tone of deep satisfac- 
tion, " now I have got it. I thought it could not be long 
before Cherry would take me in hand.” 

"But whatever did you mean?” 

245 


246 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 

“ Came over here and sit down/’ he said, drawing her 
away from the path to a rock among the trees, and laying 
himself at her feet. “ Now what was it I said in that un- 
fortunate letter ? ” 

“It was not unfortunate,” said Cherry, “for we were 
very glad to get it; only that puzzled us. You said you 
kept some sort of a storm flag flying. And we did not 
know what a storm flag might be.” 

Magnus looked down for a moment in silence. 

“No wonder,” he said, “ for the idea is something that 
never came into your true heart. You know what it means 
to strike your colours ? ” 

“ Yes — oh, yes!” 

“And what it is to keep them flying, — for you do it 
every day.” 

“And I thought that must be what you meant,” said 
Cherry. “ You did not like to call your flag a big one, but 
it was always bravely flying.” 

“I meant more than that — or less,” said Magnus. 
“ Cerise, a storm flag is a sort of between thing. It may 
blow pretty hard, you think, and so you haul down your 
beautiful fair-weather banner and run up another that costs 
less; a little, little strip of bunting that hardly shows it 
is there. You know it is; and once in a while, in a good 
light, you can see the colours; but that is about all. It 
does not encourage the world much, and tells of hard 
weather more than of victory and joy. Do you understand 
now, dear girl ? ” 

Cherry was looking at him with the keenest attention; 
the pulsations of colour came and went. 

“ But, Magnus,” she began. 

“Yes, Cherie. Say whatever comes into your heart to 
say.” 

“ Then there is a little short time every now and then 
when the colours are really down ? ” 


LAYING FOUNDATIONS 247 

“ Yes. And the harder the gale, the longer it takes to 
get them up again. It is often slow work, anyhow/’ said 
Magnus, with some bitterness at himself. 

Cherry sat silent, looking down. 

“ What would happen to the other flag — the big one — 
if you left it flying? ” she said. 

“ In a gale ? Go to ribands, probably — the real one.” 

“Yes, the real one. But that is just what the bul- 
lets do to it! ” said Cherry, her eyes glowing and deep- 
ening. “And everybody only loves such a flag the 
better.” 

“ And you love me the less.” 

The girl started slightly, with the sudden transfer of the 
subject to herself, but she made no answer. 

“ Speak ! ” Magnus said, getting hold of her hand and 
giving it a little shake. “ Cherry, you’ve got to speak. 
Do you?” 

“No,” she answered slowly; “you know that could not 
be. We have been friends too long. I was a little disap- 
pointed, that is all.” 

I suppose there are few wholesomer views a man can get 
of himself than through the eyes of the right sort of 
woman ; but the wholesome is not always the sweet. Cadet 
Kindred said to himself just then that it was extremely bit- 
ter. He had been disappointed in himself, of course, more 
than once, but that was another matter. One gives little 
softening touches to one’s own private lectures; excusing 
and explaining. Now, this true heart, which he well be- 
lieved would never flinch in the direst extremity, had 
counted the minutes when the colours were down, measured 
the storm flag, and been “ disappointed.” 

If she had said sharper things, he could have borne it 
better. Was this weak girl going to sail away from him 
on every tack? This morning she had read pages where 
he knew not a word ; this afternoon she was ready for the 


248 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 

forefront of that life battle where he had at least thought 
of dodging behind a tree. 

He sat looking down, slowly swinging her hand back and 
forth, thinking of the days and times when he had trained 
with the wrong crowd, giving countenance to what at heart 
he disapproved. Nothing so dreadfully bad, perhaps, but 
very small work for him, a servant of the Great King ; not 
loyal, not dauntless. 

True, he had afterwards called himself to order; had 
“ braced up ” spiritually, and even for a time won the title 
of “ saint ” ; but “ steadfast, immovable,” he had not been. 
And in that swift way in which thoughts work, there 
flashed upon him the story of one of the battles of the 
Wilderness, when, as the young colour-bearer was shot 
down, another caught the banner from his hand — and an- 
other from his, until for a few minutes the colours just fell 
and rose, fell and rose — but never allowed to touch the 
ground ; not once. 

“ Ma gnus ” 

“What?” he said. 

“ Will you please to look up and speak ? ” The tone was 
deprecating, the dark eyes wistful and grave. 

“There does not anything please me just now, except 
holding your hand. No, you cannot get it away. You 
see. Cherry, this is how it is : there’s a strong tide there, 
setting the way you shouldn’t go.” 

“Everywhere,” put in Cherry. 

“ So mother says ; but I speak of what I know. When 
you first get to the Academy, you are so homesick that 
you’d like to pray and read the Bible all the time ; it seems 
more like home than anything else. Then you are plagued, 
and get provoked. Then upper classmen drive you to 
prayer-meeting, and of course you don’t want to go. Then 
you get so tangled up in the work and the hazing that 
you’d give your own dog two cents to tell you who you 


LAYING FOUNDATIONS 


249 


are. You can’t keep Sunday, — at least, you think you 
can’t, — with guard-mounting in the morning and dress 
parade at night, and in barracks a lesson a mile long for 
eight o’clock Monday morning.” 

"But Magnus, you do not study on Sunday?” Cherry 
said anxiously. 

" I did once — and maxed it straight through, had a 
splendid week, and saw visions of Willet’s Point. So I 
thought I’d try it again. And that week I just went down ; 
got the worst nmrks I ever had, and, instead of the doughty 
Engineer Corps, had the Immortals in full view. So I 
concluded to get back into the good old ways and stay 
there.” 

Cherry laughed, but her eyes glistened. " That was one 
of the Lord’s gentle rebukes,” she said. 

" Well, it lasted,” said Magnus. " I haven’t done that 
thing again.” 

" And they make no allowance for the day before’s being 
Sunday ? ” 

"Not a bit. Why, one of the instructors advised us to 
have our prayer-meeting early Sunday night, that there 
might be more hours for study.” 

" But if you told them, Magnus ? ” 

"They would just think I was shirking. You see we 
could not ask in numbers enough to be a power, for many 
of the men do not care. That’s another thing in one’s way ; 
see a first classman as meek as Moses at prayer-meeting, 
and then in camp have him just as hateful as Pharaoh and 
all the Egyptians.” 

" To you yourself, Magnus ? ” 

" I was a pleb once, you know. And nothing was too bad 
to do to a pleb, for the best of men. No, I take that back; 
we had — and we have — some splendid upper classmen; 
men who dose you with good counsel. It is not always pleas- 
ant to take, Cherie, but it did me lots of good, for they lived 


250 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 

up to it themselves. They help, too, in other ways. Get a 
pleb in out of the sun, and give him some play work in a 
tent, and so keep him away from the hazing parties and 
give him time to breathe. Mr. Upright was always doing 
such things.” 

“ I should think everyone would love him very much.” 

“ Yes, but you mustn’t,” said Magnus, giving her hand 
a little swing. “You are not to love anybody but me. 
However, Upright isn’t there now ; graduated, and gone to 
make enlisted men good and happy, wherever he’s stationed. 
Trueman is such another ; and Starr, in our class. Ugliest 
little man you ever saw, and the best.” 

“Then I do not believe he is the ugliest,” said Cherry 
decidedly. “But it was not like that last year, Mag- 
nus? ” 

“Oh, no! Yearlings have leave to step out and show 
themselves. Get invited to picnics, some of them, and go 
to the hops, most of them, and are wild for fun, all of 
them.” 

“Well, Magnus?” 

“Well, Cherie, you see how it was. I have not been 
as bad as I might, nor anything like as good. They think 
me a pretty reliable fellow over there, but I’m not by any 
means what you would call a shining light. Six in studies, 
and one in discipline, and a double-first at all sorts of mis- 
chief.” 

Cherry could not help smiling. 

“The very same boy you always were,” she said. 

“ Pretty much. Only this is mischief that tells. Choco- 
late parties in rooms after lights are out.” 

“ After lights are out ? ” 

“ Supposed to be. Explosions on the area coming from 
nowhere and nothing; and post dogs, painted to admira- 
tion.” 

“ But, Magnus ! ” 


LAYING FOUNDATIONS 251 

“ What, my lady ? ” 

“ You do not do such things? ” 

ct I drank the chocolate — should have got skinned for it, 
too, only I stood behind something when Towser came in. 
And I looked at the dog. And I did not go out of 
my wits with astonishment at the explosions. Queer, 
too; for when you get together a bell button, a match, a 
white feather, a little powder, and a second classman, they 
make more noise than you would suppose possible.” 

“ I thought they kept such watch of you,” Cherry said. 
“ We have wasted a great deal of sympathy.” 

“No you haven’t, and yes, they do; that’s the fun. 
Some of the men will tell you that breaking regulations is 
all the fun they have.” 

“ Not you, Magnus ? ” 

“ No, not I exactly. I never can quite get rid of a cer- 
tain respect for law and order. But you would laugh 
yourself ; you couldn’t help it, to see a solemn-looking Tac 
inspecting for apples, and know that they were within an 
inch of his nose, where he couldn’t find them.” 

“ And you all kept grave ? ” 

“ Stood attention, like the sweet boys we were, till he was 
gone, — and stood on our heads afterwards.” 

Cherry did laugh, but rather doubtfully. “I suppose 
it must be fun,” she said, “ but I wish you would let the 
other boys have it.” 

“ That is not the only sort, by any means;” said Mag- 
nus. “ One day Miss Flirt had brought Crinkem a basket 
of pears. Well, he stored them skilfully in parts un- 
known, till friendly darkness should come to help; had to 
go to drill, and told Carr (who hadn’t) to keep an eye on 
the basket. Which Carr did. Wasn’t a pear there when 
Crinkem got back.” 

“ Who is Crinkem ? ” 

“ First classman, then.” 

% 


252 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 

“ And who is Miss Flirt ? ” 

“ A summer girl who stays all the time, and flirts with 
everybody.” 

“ With you ? ” 

“No, because she can’t. She jeered me when I was a 
poor candidate, and I vowed revenge.” 

“ I should say revenge lay in the other direction,” re- 
marked Cherry. 

“ Not for her. She’s been on tiptoe to rope me in, ever 
since I wore chevrons. I did half think I would teach her 
a lesson when I got to be first captain.” 

“ Oh, Magnus, don’t ! ” 

“ Why not?” 

“ Because she is a woman,” said Cherry earnestly. “ Oh, 
Magnus, help even the silly people, if you can. I’ve been 
thinking so much lately of the dear Lord’s words: ‘Ye 
are the salt of the earth.’ Don’t you know how salt gives 
strength and character to even things tasteless and ready to 
spoil?” 

Magnus bent down, reverently touching his lips to the 
hand he held. 

“ It’s a pledge,” he said. “ I’ll let Miss Flirt alone; help 
her, if I can. But Cerise, I only said thought. And 
I have not thought it any more since I have seen you again. 
You are certainly that salt, for me.” 

“How did the class supper go off?” Cherry inquired, 
changing the subject. “ You were full of it when you wrote 
last.” 

“ It went off,” said Magnus soberly. “ The crowd was 
there. And some of the crowd were too full of it after- 
wards. Don’t speak about that ; I’d like to forget it.” 

She looked at him a little wonderingly, with that grave, 
earnest look which was so innocent of evil, but said no more. 
Magnus watched her for a minute, then gently laid back in 
her lap the hand he had been holding, and turned half away. 


LAYING FOUNDATIONS 253 

“ You want to hear about it,” he said, “and you shall; 
it is best you should. Cherry, you know cadets are for- 
bidden strong drink, in any shape, while they are at the 
Post?” 

She nodded. 

“ Well, before furlough and before graduation, there is 
always a vote taken by each class, — ‘ wet or dry/ for the 
class supper; shall they have wine — or shall they not? I 
have heard of one class who fought it through for temper- 
ance, and won. With, of course, a minority protest; but 
so really a minority that the other was counted as the class 
vote; and their names should be gold-starred in every 
register. Our class had no such proud distinction, nor the 
late first ; and the usual results followed.” 

“ But Magnus! ” The girl’s colour changed so that he 
could not bear to look at her. 

“Yes?” he said, with a deep breath. “Ask any ques- 
tions you like.” 

“ I cannot ask ! ” she cried in distress. “ These men 
whom you praise so highly, who are so pleasant, so bril- 
liant ” 

“Were under a cloud that night, some of them,” said 
Magnus gravely. “They did not fall under the table, 
Cherry, but they did try to get upon it and harangue the 
world from thence. It took pretty forcible persuasions to 
keep some of them down.” 

“ Alas ! ” Cherry said, in a tone of sorrow and pity that 
might have gone to anybody’s heart, her sweet eyes 
brimming over. “ Oh, Magnus, what did the minority 
do?” 

Magnus glanced up at her. 

“ Stood to their votes, some of them,” he said ; “ and some 
did not. And of those last. Cherry, I was one.” 

“ You, Magnus? ” The words came with such a cry that 
the young man felt as if he had been struck. Not another 


‘254 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 

word followed, but he could see that she was trembling 
from head to foot. 

“ Do not mistake me,” he said gently. “ I did not dis- 
grace myself in any open way, but I did take more than 
was good for me. For the first, and for the last time, the 
Lord being my witness and my help.” 

And now something in his words scattered the last show 
of Cherry’s self-eontrol. She exclaimed once more: 

“ Oh, Magnus ! ” 

But then her head went down in her hands, and she cried 
as bitterly as only those women who rarely cry at all can 
do — silently, uncontrollably, shaken like a young willow 
by this sudden flood which had burst its bounds. Cherry 
could not stay the tears, could not look up nor speak. 

And Magnus on his part ventured neither word nor 
touch, and after a minute or two no look. The sight of the 
dear head, bowed so low in its distress, was more than he 
could bear. He turned away, with a sort of groan, think- 
ing of that miserable night with unmeasured scorn of him- 
self. Not that he had by any means gone the length of 
many another man; no one had been obliged to call him 
tc order or see him home. But he knew that both dignity 
and manhood had been tampered with, and the scorn was 
deep. Not even a poor storm flag out that night! 

Would Cherry ever speak to him again? 

And now he turned towards her once more. One long 
curly brown tress had slipped from the comb, and lay wav- 
ing down at his side. Magnus looked at it, touched it softly, 
then turned away again. 

There came a sound of steps and voices, and, too quick to 
be hindered, Cherry sprang to her feet and darted away; 
and Magnus was taken possession of by his two young sis- 
ters, one on either side. 

“ What are you doing? ” said Violet gaily. “ Composing 
a sonnet to the summer girl’s eyebrows ? ” 


LAYING FOUNDATIONS 255 

“ They are not always her own. What are you about, 
chicks ? wandering round at this time of night.” 

“ We came to help you get home,” said Rose. “ Or to 
find out if you were coming.” 

“ Because, if you are not, one pint of flannel cakes for 
breakfast will be enough,” said Violet. “ Where is 
Cherry ? ” 

"I do not know.” 

“ Oh, you took her home, and got moonstruck on the way 
back,” said Rose. 

“ Struck with something. It was more like Ithuriers 
spear,” said Magnus absently. 

“ But what were you at, sure enough?” 

“ Getting photographs of myself in the moonlight.” 

“ Snap-shots ? ” Rose asked, laughing at him. 

"Just that. You are good little girls to look me up. 
Come, let us go.” 

And with a sort of bitter-sweet sense of holding fast 
what he had, Magnus put his arm round each, and so led 
them down the hill, their young voices making merry, the 
girlish arms locked round him, fast and true. 

This did not lay his thoughts, however. Should he ever 
mar the joy of these gay tones? ever make the innocent 
eyes look down in shame, for him? Thoughts, questions, 
purposes, surged through the young cadet’s head as he 
walked along, and Magnus would fain have gone straight 
to the silence of his own room. But they had waited 
prayers for him, and of course he must take his place. 

There are moods, however, in which no prayers but 
one’s own will do; and though Magnus did hear his 
mother’s voice, and the chapter she read, he could never 
have told a word of it afterwards. He got away as soon 
as he could, and went upstairs; went to his own room and 
locked the door, and fell on his knees ; it seemed to him as 
if only so could he even think out anything clearly. 


256 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 

How had it all come about? The wild transport of the 
last few days had confused everything. 

He remembered now that one and another had counselled 
him not to go, to cut the class supper, and so save money, 
risk, and name. “ I’ll have nothing to do with the whole 
thing,” Twinkle had said. And he could see the staunch, 
quiet face of some who were there and yet stood to their 
vote. Why had not he? 

It was not real cowardice, Magnus said to himself. He 
had thought the word, and yet the bravery called for had 
not been so much that of standing a taunt or refusing a 
persuasion; the men had not said so very much to him. 
Perhaps, indeed, more open attack might have roused more 
open resistance. But he had lacked that utterly “ valiant 
for the truth ” heart, which for love of the cause, and see- 
ing the fight at hand, flings out the unpopular banner and 
stands beside it. 

As in those dreadful days of the New York riots, when all 
the servants in a certain house declared their sympathy 
with the rioters and against the flag. And the dear mistress 
of the house, alone there, and with no one to back her, ran 
out the biggest “ Old Glory ” she could find, from her very 
most conspicuous window, and kept it floating. 

Just there, Magnus felt, had been his fault, ever since 
he went to the Academy ; his religion had been too little an 
open, positive thing; had not gone forth enough from its 
own intrenchments. He had rarely ever tried to make him- 
self a power for good. There had been back and forth 
progress and impulses (if I may so put it), but not steady, 
daily growth; not joyful, burning zeal for Christ and his 
cause. So, in the wild excitement of that day and night, 
he had forgotten everything but that he was off on fur- 
lough. Now it had come to this. 

Had he lost Cherry? He could not tell. But he would 
be worthy of her, whether or not. If the joy of his life 


LAYING FOUNDATIONS 257 


was gone, and sometimes Magnus felt that it was, yet 
honour and truth remained. “ What shall it profit a man, 
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? ” 
Nay, he would neither “ lose himself,” nor be “ cast 
away.” Thoughts passed into earnest, pleading prayer, into 
new consecration vows ; and when the next fair dawn came 
stealing over the shadowed world, Cadet Charlemagne 
Kindred had folded away his storm flag, and nailed his 
noblest colours to the mast, and bid them fly! 


XXXIII 


BUILDING THEREON 

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing 
Ever made by the Hand above ? 

A woman’s heart and a woman’s life, 

And a woman’s wonderful love ? 

You have written my lesson of duty out; 

Manlike have you questioned me : 

Now stand at the bar of my woman’s soul, 

While I shall question thee. 

—Mrs. Browning. 

B UT with that point settled, and a stand taken 
which Magnus knew would now, by the grace of 
God, he held till death; there came also a rest- 
less impatience to see Cherry again and know the worst — 
if worst it was to be. And so, when Mrs. Kindred bade 
him go up the hill after breakfast and see how Mr. Erskine 
fared after his walk, Magnus went off with the most eager 
alacrity. 

He found the two over their reading, as on that first day. 
Mr. Erskine greeted him very warmly, Cherry gave a little 
cold, trembling hand, and no look at all. 

“ We were almost through our passage , : ” Mr. Erskine 
said. “ Will you sit down, my boy, and wait five minutes 
before we begin to talk ? ” 

Magnus said truly that he should like very much to 
listen, and if Cherry opened her lips to say no, she 
thought better of it, and went straight on with her 
reading. 

But it was with extreme difficulty; the voice shook and 
258 


259 


BUILDING THEREON 

fell ; more than once she stopped short for breath to go on, 
and at last, midway in a verse, the words faltered, broke, 
and after a moment's brave struggle, Cherry hid her face 
on her father’s breast. 

“ My poor little girl ! ” he said soothingly, kissing the 
bowed head. “ She is not herself, Magnus, this morning. 
Got up with a headache and a white face. I was quite 
troubled about her. And in some moods the words and 
imagery of the Bible search out all one’s weak spots.” 

“ I do not understand Greek, sir,” said Magnus 
briefly. 

“ Oh, you do not? Then I should not have made 
you listen. I beg pardon. This was it, — a grand pas- 
sage: 

“ ‘ And there shall be no more curse ; but the throne of 
God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall 
serve him; and they shall see his face; and his name 
shall be in their foreheads.’ 

“ But you should not break down there, love. That is 
all victory.” 

“ She was thinking of those who have not won it, sir,” 
said Magnus. 

“ Perhaps — dear heart ! ” said her father. “ Well, my 
boy, never do you be one of those. Fight the good fight, 
even on the smallest field. ‘As a good soldier of Jesus 
Christ.’ ” 

“I mean it, sir,” Magnus answered gravely. “Mr. 
Erskine, what that girl needs is fresh air. If you will send 
her off for a good walk with me, I’ll find a place in the 
woods where she can leave her headache. Do you want her 
to sputter Greek to you any longer ? ” 

“ ‘ Sputter Greek ! ’ ” Mr. Erskine repeated. “ Well, that 
certainly displays your knowledge of the language. Yes, 
go, love. I think Magnus is right.” 

“I know he is, this time,” said that young man con- 


260 


BUILDING THEREON 


fidently. “I wish I could stay with you, Mr. Erskine, 
while she is gone, but then you see she wouldn’t go. I’ll 
stay as long as you like when we come back.” 

“ 1 don’t doubt it,” said his friend, smiling. “ I know 
you of old. ‘ Sputter Greek,’ indeed! My Cherry, who 
has such a specially fine accent. I think she is very good to 
go with you at all.” 

“ Cherry never thinks of herself, sir,” said Magnus. “ If 
you ask her this minute, she will tell you she has thought 
only of me, ever since I came in.” 

A quick, assenting colour leaped into the pale cheeks for 
a moment, as Cherry tied on her hat, but she said nothing ; 
and Mr. Erskine was too well used to the chaffing between 
the two to do more than laugh at it. 

So they went out into the perfect J une day, slowly along 
amid hedgerows and flowers, bees, butterflies, and birds, 
to the edge of the shadowy woodland. For some reason of 
his own, Magnus had put on the grey that morning, 
and now as they went on, Cherry could not but notice and 
admire the free, regular step, and the easy exactness of the 
tall shadow that kept pace with her own. But he said 
nothing, nor did she, and once, glancing up at him from 
under her hat, she noted the deep quiet of his face — very, 
very grave, yet with a fine, clear steadfastness that seemed 
to herald victory from henceforth. A man’s face now, a 
boy’s no longer. 

Absorbed as he appeared to be, Magnus must have been 
also watching her, for he caught the look. 

“Yes?” he said. “What were you going to ask? Sit 
down, Cerise; here is a good place for you.” 

But he did not put himself at her feet, as yesterday, nor 
even close at her side, but on a grey rock a little way off ; 
then threw his cap down on the grass, and sat watching her 
anxiously. 

“ What is it ? ” he said again. “ Speak out all that is in 


BUILDING THEREON 261 

your dear heart. You could not offend me, and hurts from 
you will only do me good.” 

Probably the " all ” in Cherry’s heart was a good deal, 
just then ; for at first she could bring nothing out. 

“ I am not sure that I was going to say anything,” she 
answered with effort. 

"Well, you looked at me,” said Magnus. "What was 
that for? To see what sort of a wild animal I had turned 
into since last night ? ” 

" No, no ! Oh, Magnus don’t talk so. People may look 
at each other, I suppose.” 

" I suppose they may — and I have been looking at you. 
Cherry, have you been crying over me all night ? Because, 
if you have, I might as well go and drown myself at once.” 

Cherry remarked logically that she did not see how that 
would help matters. 

"They used to say you never cried,” Magnus said re- 
proachfully. 

" Most women keep a few tears for special occasions,” 
said Cherry, trying to speak lightly. 

" Well, you have squandered your whole stock on me,” 
said Magnus ; " you don’t look as if there could be one tear 
left. I’m not worth it, Cherry. Such a coward, such a 
careless fellow; yielding to temptation, and with only 
bravery enough left to own it. I wonder you should cry 
over him.” 

Plainly, the fountain had not yet run dry, for the girl 
looked at him with her eyes full. 

" Oh, Magnus ! ” she cried, " why do you talk so ? You 
break my heart.” 

" Well, you are breaking mine,” said Magnus ; " so we’re 
quits.” 

" What have I done ? ” Cherry faltered. 

" Thrown me off like a bad package. You didn’t look at 
me when I came in, you hardly spoke to me. I suppose I 


262 BUILDING THEREON 

deserve it, but that does not generally make things much 
easier.” 

“ Just now you found fault with me for looking at you.” 

u Found fault, did I?” said Magnus. “ I wonder you 
dare say such a thing to me.” 

“ Well, remarked upon it, then,” Cherry corrected her- 
self. 

“ A man is pretty apt to remark upon the first gleam of 
anything like sunlight he has seen for twelve hours.” 

“ Those twelve hours having come off chiefly in the 
night.” 

“ Stop chopping logic with me ! If I get cross there is 
no telling what I may do. Cherry, why don’t you say out 
all the dreadful things at once, and have them off your 
mind?” 

“ But, I thought it was to cure my head you brought me 
here?” 

“ You did not think any such thing. You knew I had 
to have it out with you, some time, and now you will not 
let me do it. Never even gave me your hand when I came 
in, but just a little piece of ice.” 

“ You are quite wild this morning,” Cherry said, with the 
feeling that detachments were coming up faster than she 
could manage them. 

“ Men are apt to be, when they are waiting to be shot 
and the guns don’t go off.” 

“ But how do I hinder your having a talk ? ” 

“ It takes two to make a bargain, doesn’t it ? Oh, yes, 
I can talk on by myself, Saturdays and Sundays, and all 
the week, and tell the truth straight through. How lovely 
Cherry looks this morning! The first night I came back I 
found she had grown handsomer than I ever thought any 
woman could be, and I think so still. And there’s not a 
girl in all the world that is half so good. And I never cared 
two straws for anybody else — and never shall. Never 


263 


BUILDING THEREON 

could, for that matter. And I ? ve been a fool, and a pol- 
troon, and anything else you like; and so she has thrown 
me off, and has no use for me any more. And it makes me 
just mad to sit here and think that I have lost her. And 
some day I shall get her wedding cards, with the name 
of some nice man who never tied his shoe strings in a 
hurry.” , 

“ Magnus, why, Magnus ! ” Cherry said, astonish- 
ment sending every other feeling to the rear. “ What is 
the matter with you?” 

“ That.” 

“ What has come over you ? ” 

“ This.” 

“But we cannot have our talk on such terms,” said 
Cherry, catching her breath a little. 

“They’re the only terms we shall ever talk on again,” 
said Magnus. “ We always chose each other out, from the 
time we could walk; and I knew I loved you with all my 
heart when I went away. But the minute I saw you again, 
that first night, I knew that I never should — never could — 
love anybody else. Not if I lived to be nine hundred 
and ninety-nine, and you got in love with forty other 
men.” 

Cherry could not help laughing, in spite of herself, for 
sheer nervousness. 

“ I think that would cure you,” she said. 

“No, it wouldn’t. I ought to know, after fighting the 
thing through all night.” 

“But, Magnus, we used to be just brother and sister,” 
Cherry said very low. 

“ No, we didn’t. Maybe you think so. We’re not that 
now, anyway, and never shall be again. That was why I 
poured out the whole thing to you last night, and made you 
sick. I wanted you to know everything there was to tell. 
Just how weak and wicked and mean I could be. I knew 


264 


BUILDING THEREON 

I didn’t deserve to hold your hand this morning, and that 
was the very reason I wanted it so much.” 

“But, Magnus,” Cherry said, the bright drops welling 
up again, “ that £ could ’ is in the past.” 

“ With the Lord’s help, yes ! ” he answered. “ I will live 
a pure life and a true life, even if I must live it alone. 
Your arrow did, its work.” 

“ Mine ? ” the girl cried. “ Oh, Magnus, was I so un- 
kind?” 

“ So kind. But I was pierced through, all the same.” 

“ I did not mean it,” she said, the tears dropping down. 
“ Oh, Magnus, I did not mean it ! ” 

“ Well, you had better mean it,” he said ; “ good enough 
for me. If there were more girls like you in the world 
there’d be more better men. Why, half of the women you 
see almost put the stuff down your throat. Give it to you 
so sweetened and spiced and fussed up that you don’t know 
what you’re taking. And when it’s once in your mouth, 
it’s pretty hard not to swallow it.” 

“Very hard, I should think,” said Cherry. “It looks 
easier to refuse it altogether.” 

“ For you, I dare say; but things are not always exactly 
what they look, for other people. However, I am going to 
try it. So if you ever happen to read in the papers of a 
hopelessly insane cadet, you’ll know who it is.” 

Again the girl’s eyes filled, though a bit of a smile came 
too. 

“Magnus,” she said, “I think you are called to be a 
leader.” 

“ Looks like it.” 

“ But I mean, really. How many other fellows, do you 
think, may take heart to follow, if you will but show the 
way? ” 

“ So you said before. How many ? I don’t know ; per- 
haps some. Oh, there are men enough there now who neve? 


BUILDING THEREON 265 

touch anything stronger than water. And I never did, till 
that unlucky night. But Fve been in lately, somehow, with 
the other crowd/’ 

" Crowds are unsafe places,” Cherry said with a sigh. 

"Well, don’t waste any long breaths on me,” Magnus 
said. "Why do you?” 

The girl’s lips parted in that same pathetic smile, but 
then they began to quiver, trembling so that she could 
not speak. 

" I wonder at you,” Magnus repeated. " Why don’t you 
tell me all your mind, and bid me go ? What do you want 
of such a Derelict ? ” 

" Magnus, you are very hard to me.” 

" I ? Hard to you ? ” Magnus repeated, at her feet now. 
"To you? My beauty, and treasure, and heart’s delight? 
The girl I love best in all the world, and the only one I 
ever can love better than everything else. I, hard to you ? 
The girl I left behind me, with my heart in her keeping. 
And now she sits there, despising me. Cherry, I never was 
anything but true to you ; never. I have fooled with other 
girls, but I did not care a red cent for the whole lot.” 

" No — ” Cherry said, drawing a long, long sigh. " Oh 
Magnus! you were not true to yourself.” 

" Never mind me,” Magnus answered unreasonably. " I 
don’t want you for a missionary. If I’ve got to have one, 
call in some old wrinkled specimen that will not distract 
my mind. If you don’t care anything about me except to 
get me creditably out of the world, why, say so. I have 
told you all the worst things about myself. And if you are 
willing to work it as we always did ; I carrying you over the 
hard places, and you brushing the mud off with your own 
little hands — you can say that, too.” 

" Oh, Magnus ! ” she cried, " there must not be any mud.” 

"There must not be, and there isn’t going to be; but 
what if there was? We can’t have the marriage service 


266 BUILDING THEREON 

made over just for us two, I suppose. I mean it shall be 
for better and better, every day I live — but you’ve got to 
take me ‘for better, for worse.’” 

I fancy few men have any faint notion what it is to a 
woman to have her image of perfection marred; perhaps 
men less often set up ideals, unless in the line of beauty; 
and that is altogether a lower erection. To see “ fragile ” 
written on your tower of strength, and the hero marked 
“human,” in unmistakable letters, is a very, very sharp 
lesson. A good one, though ; the sooner that form of idol- 
atry ceases the better; letting the woman down — or up — 
to her proper station of helpmeet. Cherry’s heart was ring- 
ing yet with the ache and the sorrow, her eyes dazed with 
this sudden mortal light let in upon the world of dreams 
and imaginations. 

Her love was not changed, she knew that ; as it had gone 
out to the hero, so still it went out to the man, and would, 
while her life lasted. No question to settle there. But now 
another was stirring in the girl’s heart, coming on a sudden 
uncalled for, unwelcome — and the old words of the apostle 
confronted her: 

“ And the wife see that she reverence her husband.” 

Could she do that? For suppose — 

Cherry could not put the thought in actual black and 
white, even to herself, but none the less she heard it speak. 
He had been tempted once — what if it happened again, 
or again? 

And now the girl lifted her head and looked at him, as 
if to spell out the answer ; never guessing how she looked. 
Wistful, questioning, eager; a look so pathetic in its love 
and sorrow that Magnus had all he could do to sit still and 
bear it. But then Cherry turned away again, and drop- 
ping her face in her hands cried and sobbed as if she had 
never cried before. 

“ That means, you give me up,” Magnus said, struggling 


BUILDING THEREON 267 

with himself. “You have no use for me any more; and 
I may go to Jericho or the moon, as I like best. Well, it 
is natural, I suppose. What could you want with anyone 
who had even once given way? I shall never blame you. 
Cherry. But, stop crying, dear heart ! It’s hard lines for 
a man to be killed two ways at once. Cherry — stop ! Do 
you hear?” 

With a great effort the girl controlled herself, and 
looked up, pushing the tears to right and left ; drawing one 
of those long clearing-wind breaths of which women seem 
to have the prerogative. A breath at once of loss and of 
courage, coming from the depths of pain, but telling of 
courage and hope ; that sort of sigh which has many a time 
been followed by a shout of victory. 

Magnus had been watching her eagerly, but as she looked 
up, his eyes turned away, and Cherry again studied him. 
What a boy he was still, after all : the young head with its 
short, curling hair, already showing that West Point bar- 
bers were far away; the smooth cheek giving faint tokens 
of what soon would be. The very hands looked so young. 
They were not clasped nor folded, but lay absolutely still, 
with that air of intense waiting which the whole figure 
wore. Cherry gazed at them, one and another scene of her 
young life wherein those hands had played a part coming 
up before her. Played it so well and so kindly that she 
had every line of them by heart; sledding, strawberrying, 
nutting, riding; the broken toys they had mended, the 
strong help they had been in many a rough place. Always 
gentle and patient for her, always ready to do her bidding ; 
the tenderest hands when she was hurt, the most untirable 
for her need. 

Cherry almost cried out aloud, for the sudden stricture 
of heart, but she kept herself in hand, and now her look 
went up to the face again, and she found that Magnus was 
watching her, with the intensest, hungry, longing eager- 


268 BUILDING THEREON 

ness. He did not stir, but sat still in that attitude of 

waiting. 

“ Magnus — ” 

“ What?” 

“ Why do not you speak? ” 

“ I have nothing to say, Cherry.” 

“ Nothing? 

“ Nothing. I have said all I can. I might promise never 
to grieve you again; might promise all sorts of beautiful 
things ; but you know — and I know — that something 
stronger than mere love of you, dear, must do the work, 
and that the work must be done, whether you ever love me 
again or not. I believe I did not know I could be tempted 
— and I have been left to find it out. If I tell you that I 
have sworn unto the Lord and will not go back, it is not to 
plead my cause with you, Cherry ; but because I know that 
just for old-time’s sake, your dear heart Will always care 
that your old playmate should grow into a man and not a 
beast.” 

“ Oh, Magnus ! ” she cried, in that same sudden way. 

“Well, that is what it amounts to. That was what I 
called myself next morning. And then with the joy of get- 
ting home and among you all again — and the wonder of 
seeing what you had grown into — everything else went out 
of my head. I was so eager to have you that I took it for 
granted you would have me. Then I remembered that for 
two whole years you had seen nothing of me, and the more 
I loved you the more that thought kept coming up. So 
then I gave you the whole story, and lost all I care for in 
this world. But it had to be done — and I should do it 
again. You needn’t look at me so, dear, and try to hide 
how you feel. You could not help being disgusted. I do 
not blame you in the least, Cherry.” 

“ Oh, Magnus ! ” she cried again. “ How can you use 
such words about me ? ” 


BUILDING THEREON 269 

“ What words shall I use ? You were disgusted, and you 
know it.” 

“ No, oh, no!” 

“ What then? Choose your own words, and tell me.” 

“ I" thought my heart was breaking,” the girl said, press- 
ing both hands upon her breast. “ That was all.” 

“ Was that all ? ” Magnus said, with a sort of quiet rage 
at himself. “ Had I done nothing but that ? Only broken 
the truest’ heart that ever beat? Nothing more?” 

“ Please, please ! ” Cherry pleaded. “ Magnus, I cannot 
talk to you if you say such things.” 

“ Go on then, you, and do the talking. Didn’t I tell you 
I had nothing more to say ? ” 

Cherry hesitated a moment, and then she put out 
her hand and laid it softly on that other which had grown 
so brown with handling guns and pontoons. Magnus 
winced, as at the touch of sharp steel, but his own hand 
never stirred. 

“ What is it ? ” he said rather shortly. 

“ Magnus — does your mother know ? ” 

“ I am going to tell her.” 

“No, no, do not! There is no need,” Cherry said 
earnestly. 

“Not much use, perhaps,” he answered in a gloomy 
tone. “ She’s bound to be my mother, through thick and 
thin.” 

“ Promise ! ” Cherry said. 

“ What have you got to do with it ? ” Magnus asked her, 
looking up. “What business is it of yours, anyhow? 
You have washed your hands of me and my concerns.” 

“ Magnus, you know that is not true.” 

“ I hope it will not take more tears to do the work,” he 
went on in the same tone. “ There have been enough shed 
now, to clear away fifteen years of memories.” 

“You do not think so, or you would not say it,” poor 


&70 BUILDING THEREON 

Cherry protested. " You are just trying to make me con- 
tradict you.” 

" Am I ? ” said Magnus, with a half laugh. " Well, go 
ahead and do it, then. Say nothing could ever make you 
forget me.” 

" Nothing ever could.” 

" Say you did love me with all your heart when I went 
away.” 

" Yes.” 

" And all the time I was gone.” 

“ All the time.” 

" And when I came home.” 

" Yes,” the girl answered in her grave, sweet tones. 

" So little while ago ! ” Magnus said, with a deep breath. 
" Cherry, you were very distant to me at first — have been, 
all along.” 

" You were a little bit of a stranger.” 

" And now you know me too well. So it goes. If I had 
not told you — but it is better so.” 

" Oh, yes ; far better ! ” the girl said earnestly. " Secrets 
are terrible things between people who — care for each 
other.” 

cc How cautiously she chooses her words,” Magnus 
said, in the same hard way. "Has to stop and think 
whether she even cares.” 

" Magnus, that is not true.” 

" Didn’t you stop to think what to say ? ” 

"Yes.” 

" Well, then.” 

" People stop to think for different reasons.” 

" You were afraid of saying too much, and you know you 
were.” 

" If you are so very far-seeing, perhaps you can also tell 
me why.” 

" Because you are as true as the blue sky,” said Magnus ; 


BUILDING THEREON 271 

“ and as tender, and so you wanted to use the softest 
words you could, and hurt me the least.” 

“ You would not ‘ make a max, 5 as you call it, on girls,” 
said Cherry, her lips parting in a bit of a smile. “ I did 
not choose my words so, at all.” 

“ Why, then?” 

“ Because I am a girl, I think,” she answered rather 
slowly. 

“ And so did not want to give more pain than you could 
help. That is just what I said.” 

“ Do you ever play stupid at West Point ? ” Cherry said a 
little impatiently. 

“ No need to play it.” 

“ Well, there is no need now,” she said, springing up ; 
“ and I am going home till you come back to your common 
sense.” 

“ No, don’t go ! ” Magnus said, catching hold of her 
dress. “ Sit down and lecture me, scold me, say what you 
will of me, only stay a while longer. Cherry, you do not 
know what it is to have the only girl in the world throw 
you off.” 

She turned then, and stood looking down at him; the 
fair face telling all he wanted to know; but, as Cherry had 
said, he was not well read in girls. 

“Magnus,” she said, “what makes you talk so? I am 
not ‘ the only girl in the world ’ — but I have not thrown 
you off. You know I could not do that. Unless ” 

“ Unless what ? ” he said eagerly. 

“Unless I knew you had chosen such ways,” the girl 
said, growing very white. “And then it would be you 
that had thrown me off.” 


XXXIV 

AMBUSHES 

Soft silken hours, 

Open suns, shady bowers ; 

’Bove all, nothing within that lowers. 

— Crash aw. 

M AGNUS was as good as his word, and stayed all 
day. What though Cherry was summarily sent 
off, after the early dinner, to sleep away the 
effects of her headache. Whether she slept or not I would 
not dare say; but certainly Magnus talked, and kept Mr. 
Erskine well amused, till she appeared again. 

But he gave not a hint of the morning’s work; about 
that, both parties most interested held their peace. I think 
they both craved silence for a while, and so kept in hiding ; 
not ready yet to hear common tongues discuss the new- 
found wonder of the world. Cherry had been too shaken 
and bruised — there were too many sharp details still vividly 
in sight — for her to go straight to her father, as perhaps 
at another time she might have done ; she needed to steady 
her own thoughts first. And for Magnus, too, the morning 
had been a hard one, even with its culmination of joy. Be- 
sides, counting Cherry his own from that time forward, 
the small ceremony of asking for her could well wait. 
Probably Mr. Erskine needed no telling how things stood. 
And if it were indeed a secret, what fun to keep it such ! 
He wanted no words on the subject, just now, save from 
Cherry herself. Not yet. 

All the family from the other house came up the hill to 
tea next day, but saw nothing new. If Cherry was more 
272 


AMBUSHES 


273 


quiet than usual, that was not strange, after such a head- 
ache ; and if Cadet Kindred, on the other hand, was as full 
of pranks as the veriest boy could be, it was not such an 
unheard-of thing as to draw any special attention. One 
thing they might have seen, that his mischief and frolic 
never came near Cherry; towards her his manner was a 
silent devotion of the most tender and serious sort, but he 
kept everyone else in such a breeze that no one gave heed. 

Speeding back from the post-office with a handful of 
letters, Magnus announced that Messrs. Twinkle and Rig 
• — alias Cadets Starr and McLean — were coming to make 
him a visit in the course of their furlough wanderings, and 
everybody at once went into committee on the proper and 
possible means of delighting them. 

Magnus, indeed, turned off the matter very easily. 

" It is done to your hand,” he affirmed. " Mother’s 
cake and pies and bread and butter — with two girls — 
would make the average cadet almost too happy to support 
life.” 

"Two girls!” Rose commented. "You seem to leave 
Cherry out.” 

" I did — that’s a fact,” Magnus said, with a queer ges- 
ture. " But then you also leave me out, and I am a 
third cadet; so it’s all right. She’ll not stand in the 
cold.” 

" I do not think she will, if the others have any sense,” 
said Rose. 

" The average cadet has not much, when there are girls 
around,” said Magnus. " He has such hard rubs all day 
from the Profs and Tacs that their soft ways get the bet- 
ter of him.” 

" We have no soft ways, here,” said Rose decidedly. 

"Not for me, I know; but wait till Twinkle comes 
along.” 

" Twinkle — what a name ! ” said Violet. 


274 


AMBUSHES 

“ He couldn’t miss it, being a small man called Starr,” 
said Magnus. “ And he’s not a blazer, by any means ; keeps 
down well near the horizon, and never even poses as a 
first-magnitude man. Sometimes when he f esses more than 
usually frigid, we sing him to sleep with : 

“Twinkle ! Twinkle ! little Starr ! 

How I wonder what you are." 

“ I think that is perfectly mean ! ” said Bose indig- 
nantly. “ Making sport of each other’s misfortunes.” 

“ We should die if we didn’t make sport of something,” 
said Magnus. “And you laugh easier when you take an- 
other man’s scalp, than when he takes yours.” 

“ Well, of all the lingo that ever was heard, I think your 
cadet slang is the queerest,” said Violet. 

“ Glad it meets your approval,” Magnus said, with a 
bow. “ Say, Cherry, just promise you’ll walk with no- 
body but me, while those fellows are here. Have a previous 
every time. These girls are so keen-set for brotherly kind- 
ness that they’ll be sacrificing themselves on me to let you 
have the strangers. You’re too tall for Twinkle, and Big 
will turn your head.” 

“ Or she will turn his,” said Violet. 

“ I suppose that is it. But it wouldn’t do for Big to get 
rattled. The poor boy has got to go back and bone for 
dear life. Bose will keep him up to his duty ; talk geometry 
to him, and make his life a burden.” 

“ Bose will ? ” said that young person, lifting her eye- 
brows. “ Well, I wish Cherry would talk some sense into 
you.” 

“ Nobody can do it half so well,” said Magnus, with a 
change of tone. “ And she is going to try ; she is to give 
me a special private lecture every day I am here. So that 
it is really quite providential to have Twinkle and Big on 
hand, for they’ll keep you two girls amused and out of the 
way.” 


AMBUSHES 


275 


“ Indeed ! And who is to amuse mother ? ” 

“ Cherry and I.” 

And Magnus stooped down by his mother, with arms 
about her neck, and laid his face close to hers. 

“ Cherry and I, mammy/’ he said softly. “ Do you un- 
derstand? Cherry and I?” 

Only Cherry saw the little start, the eager look at him, 
and the slight nod with which Magnus answered. But 
Mrs. Kindred was a wise woman, and said no word. Per- 
haps she prayed a little more for the two after that ; though 
really I do not know whether she could. There sprang up 
an instant wish in Cherry’s mind, however, that no word 
should be said to anybody else until the two strange cadets 
should have made their visit and gone. Magnus was quite 
wild enough, even with this slight check upon his pro- 
ceedings. And an unconsciously deprecating look went 
over to him, which the young man caught, read, and an- 
swered with a profound bow. 

“ Yes, lady,” he said ; “ your commands shall be obeyed. 
Even to the half of my fortune. Or, as I haven’t any at 
all, perhaps the whole will not be too much.” 

“By the way,” said Mr. Erskine, noting (and somehow 
resenting) the pink tints that came up in Cherry’s cheeks ; 
“what has become of that ‘very best sort of a girl’ you 
talked so fast about last week ? ” 

“ What has become of her? ” Magnus repeated, standing 
involuntary “ attention.” 

“ Yes. Where is she ? ” 

“ At home, sir.” 

“ I will not ask where that is, as I have not permission,” 
said Mr. Erskine, smiling now ; “ but what does she say to 
your coming here first and staying so long ? ” 

“ She has made no objection as yet, sir. So I do not 
think she will.” 

“ Well, she ought, if she cares enough for you,” said Mr. 


276 


AMBUSHES 

Erskine. “ Boy, Fm afraid you have got yourself tangled 
up in a foolish thing.” 

“ What should you call ‘ enough,’ sir ? ” 

“ Well — all she can,” said Mr. Erskine. 

“ How much could any first-best girl care for me, sir? ” 
said Magnus, moving a step or two for a better view of 
Cherry. 

“ Oh, you need not try the modest game here,” said Mr. 
Erskine, laughing at him. “ It is too late in the day for 
that. If she only cares a little, let her go ; and find one who 
will love all there is in you, and a good deal more that she 
thinks is there. I wouldn’t give a counterfeit five cents for 
a tepid girl.” 

Mr. Erskine spoke with such disgustful energy that 
everybody laughed out. 

“But what girl is this?” Rose demanded. “Someone 
you never told us of ? ” 

“ There are fifty girls I never told you of.” 

“ And besides, Rose, he is only attitudinising,” said Mr. 
Erskine. “I do not believe the girl is in existence that 
could get him away. He is just young man enough to like 
the part of an easy-minded lover.” 

Magnus remarked with some energy that it was better 
than the part of an wneasy-minded lover, every time. But 
now the fun of the thing got hold of him, and sealed his 
lips in earnest. No, if really people could not see, they 
could wait. 

Several other things came in to further and abet the 
silence. 

First of all, the neighbourhood waked up to the fact that 
a prospective brigadier was among them, and the inroads 
to see Magnus, and to hear him tell his experience, were 
many — and “ a nuisance.” So he himself declared, making 
wry faces over his popularity. 

Then, Mr. Erskine had one of his suffering weeks, when 


277 


AMBUSHES 

troubling him with questions was not to be thought of. 
Magnus detailed himself as head nurse, taking all the 
night work, sending Cherry off to bed, and gathering up 
the reins generally in his own hands, proving himself most 
tender and efficient as well as strong. Of course, things 
must be talked over before he went back; but even Cherry 
herself could not think this a good time. 

On the back of all these hinderances, and just as Mr. 
Erskine began to be about again, came the other two cadets. 


XXXV 
OF COUKSE 

Admire my daughter ! Sir, you’re very good. 

— Tales of the Hall. 

T HEKE followed such a round of teas on the hill 
and dinners at the cottage; of picnics, walks, 
drives, and berry-scouts, that the days gave up 
their ordinary rate of progress, and flew. June had long 
been out of sight; and now July was ending, and August 
close at hand. Magnus indeed closed his ears to the soft 
flutter, as the days winged by; but not so Mrs. Kindred, 
and not so Cherry. The girl began to look forward with 
absolute dismay to the drawing out from her daily life of 
this gold-twisted silken thread. What should she do, when 
Magnus was away again ? 

If I say that she was getting bound to him in deeper and 
finer trust and love, with every new day’s experience, it is 
no more than the truth ; and no more, I think, than he de- 
served. Love for the right sort of woman puts a man at 
his best, and brings him out wonderfully. Count the min- 
utes? Ah, yes! two hearts at least did that. In just so 
many days more Magnus must leave them all. 

Then suppose Mr. Erskine — no, it could not be ; and yet, 
after every such decision, one always goes back to say the 
" suppose” over again. 

"Magnus, I do wish you would have your talk with 
papa,” Cherry ventured one day. 

"You recommended that at first — twice, if I recollect 
right,” remarked Cadet Kindred. 

278 


OF COURSE 279 

" I did nothing of the sort. But I should think you 
might have commended it to yourself by this time.” 

" It is such fun to puzzle him.” 

" But it will not be fun to grieve him,” Cherry said. 

" Is he going to be grieved ? Then it will all come upon 
your hands. You know you can wheedle any bird off any 
bush at any time.” 

" ‘ Wheedle ’ papa ! ” Cherry said with some energy. 
"Not I, I promise you.” 

"Well, I know you mean to keep all your promises to 
me,” said Magnus. "But come along, and see me throw 
myself at his feet. Then he can save time, and give us 
his blessing together.” 

"No, I am not going,” Cherry said, pulling her hand 
away and trying not to laugh. 

" You are worse than Lord Ullin’s daughter,” said 
Magnus. " She plunged into all the danger there was 
around. Cherie, will you send me a letter every single 
day?” 

" Oh, do not talk about letters yet ! ” Cherry said, in such 
a pitiful tone that Magnus forgot all about Mr. Erskine, 
and gave himself up to the task of comforting her. And 
it was the father himself who at last, unawares, brought 
on the talk. 

" Only twenty days left,” he said one morning, when 
Magnus came into his study and sat down, with an absent- 
minded air. 

" Nineteen, sir.” 

" Then you settle down to hard work again.” 

" For two years, sir.” 

" And then?” 

" Then I take my diploma and a three-months’ leave, and 
come back here.” 

" Three months — till October.” 

" Yes, sir.” 


280 


OF COURSE 

“ That is better than nothing/’ said Mr. Erskine ; “ but 
we shall all think it very short.” 

“I cannot stay until quite October,” said Magnus, “but 
towards that.” 

“And then?” 

“ Then I take Cherry and go to my post.” 

But now Mr. Erskine sat straight up, grasping the arm 
of his chair. 

“ Take Cherry ! ” he repeated. “ My baby ! It is Cherry 
you want to take to San Carlos ? ” 

“ It may not be San Carlos, sir. Of course, I must take 
her wherever I go.” 

“ Well, you need not get up before gunfire to bone as- 
surance,” said Mr. Erskine. “ My Cherry ! And what do 
you suppose she will say to this brilliant plan for her hap- 
piness ? ” 

“ I do not think she much cares where we go, sir,” Mag- 
nus answered, with easy confidence. 

It was an indescribable pang that shot through the 
father’s heart. His one treasure, his pearl of all the world, 
already did not “ much care ” where she went, so long as 
she could be with this youngster — put her hand in his, 
and go I 

“It may happen that I shall care,” he said huskily. 
“What makes you think I will give her up to go any- 
where ? ” 

“But you can go, too, you know, sir,” Cadet Kindred 
answered, with that same calm tone which ignores the hard 
and cuts through the impossible. “ We have talked about 
it a great deal.” 

“ It strikes me that a little of the talking should have 
come to me.” 

“Yes, sir; but then you are so seldom alone — always 
reading or something on hand — it was hard to find a chance. 
And then you were sick. And I thought you must see for 


OF COURSE 281 

yourself. And then, if you didn’t, it was such fun to 
puzzle you,” Magnus said honestly. 

“ So seldom alone,” Mr. Erskine repeated rather bit- 
terly. “ I suppose it will be often enough in the future. 
No, do not say another word to me now. Take yourself 
off, young man, and get out of my sight, and give me a 
chance to draw my breath. My Cherry ! ” 

It was perhaps just as well for everybody that the two 
guests were still there, and the fun and frolic at high-water 
mark; the best intentions thereto, or even the justest cause, 
could not make anybody look grave or stiff or anxious. 
Therefore Mr. Erskine had time to study up his hard ques- 
tion unnoticed. 

" Question,” indeed, it hardly was. Mr. Erskine knew, 
without thinking, that he loved Magnus Kindred like his 
own son; and it took very little awakened observation to 
show him that, on Cherry’s part, the old childish affection 
had passed into the deepest and strongest that a woman 
can know. Reserved and self-contained as she always was, 
her father could see a hundred little tokens which he mar- 
velled he had never noticed before. He watched Magnus, 
too, with very keen-set eyes, studied him, weighed him in 
all sorts of scales, and, on the whole, was well content. J ust 
about as much of a boy as ever, only more of a man; gay, 
saucy, absurd, and sensible ; but through it all now, in what- 
ever touched Cherry, there was an indescribable tone of 
reverence which became him well, as it does any man who 
has won for himself the priceless trust of a true woman’s 
love. His own love and devotion were patent enough. 
Magnus had certainly “ taken it hard,” as people say. The 
father noted it well, and judged it all of a quality that 
would wear. 

Once making up his mind to the situation, it was amus- 
ing enough ; and the two elders of the party had many a 
quiet laugh at the skill with which Messrs. Twinkle and 


282 


OF COURSE 


Rig were headed off, and never allowed to improve their 
acquaintance with Cherry. It was always somebody else 
with whom they were fated to walk, and to whom they 
might make pretty speeches ; and with all a man’s reckless- 
ness about possible damage to other hearts, and lest his 
tactics should be found out, Magnus hunted up other girls 
— old acquaintances of the neighbourhood — to share the 
burden which at first Violet and Rose had borne alone. 

" But, Magnus ! ” Mrs. Kindred protested one day, “ you 
go on like crazy boys, you three. Girls about here aren’t 
used to young fellows who say everything they do not mean. 
My dear, I fear you are sowing mischief. Jenny Mott 
went home last night with her head more than half 
turned.” 

“ Easy job for Rig to finish, then,” said Magnus. “ Never 
mind, mammy; keep up your spirits. We’re not so unlike 
other boys as you seem to think. It is getting to be rather 
serious with Twinkle and Viola.” 

“ Now, my dear ! ” Mrs. Kindred said, with her hand on 
his arm ; “ now, Magnus ! you must not put any nonsense 
into that child’s head ! ” 

“ Couldn’t if I would,” said Magnus ; “ not an inch of 
room. You couldn’t get a grain in sideways after 
Twinkle’s been talking to her. He’s a right good fellow, 
mammy; don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t flirt — much; and 
if his light isn’t of the very biggest, it’s always there, which 
is better. She might do worse.” 

“ But, Magnus, Violet is hardly grown up.” 

“ Why don’t you tell Twinkle so, and ask him to wait ? ” 
said Magnus, with a very grave face. But then he laughed. 

“ Oh, mammy ! ” he said, “ when cadets are about, it’s 
‘ all luggage at the risk of the owners.’ I had picked out 
somebody else for Vio, if only he’s not gone before she gets 
there. What a thing it is to have me well settled in life 
before your anxieties over the girls come on ! ” And then 


OF COURSE 283 

Magnus kissed her, and set his face towards the other 
house. 

“But Magnus!” said Mrs. Kindred, calling him back, 
“you have not told me what Mr. Erskine says. Do you 
know yourself? He knits his brows so sometimes, when 
he is looking at you, that I never dare ask him. Is he will- 
ing, do you think?” 

“ He will be, before I get through with him,” said Mag- 
nus confidently, and he went whistling up the hill, as 
though that small task were done to his hand. 


XXXVI 
SAN CARLOS 


Mix up a barrel of sand and ashes and thorns, and jam scorpions 
and rattlesnakes along in, and dump the outfit on stones, and heat 
the stones red hot ; and set the United States army loose over the 
place chasin’ Apaches ; and you’ve got San Carlos. 


— U. S. Soldier, in Harper's Magazine. 


D I suppose so it was; the task was really ended 



when the idea came in. A strong protector for 


JL. JLliis darling when his own care should fail* had 
been the longing in Mr. Erskine’s heart for many a day, 
and Magnus Kindred had always been second only to 
Cherry in his heart. Yet to give her up before the time, 
and, instead of leaving her, to have her leave him, it was 
sharp enough. No wonder he knit his brows now and then 
in the midst of all the gaiety, and almost put out a hand 
between his child and this youngster who claimed such 
rights and took them with such assurance. No wonder if 
he frowned a little now, to-day, as Magnus came whistling 
up, and throwing himself down on a lower step of the 
porch, waited for the older man to speak. 

But for a while the silence was unbroken, as Mr. Erskine 
made a sort of final examination; obliged to come back to 
the judgment he had given weeks ago, that Charlemagne 
Kindred was “ a splendid fellow.” The critical eyes could 
find no fault. 

Very serious the face was now, as he sat there looking 
off, schooling himself to patient waiting, once in a while 
almost starting up at some sound of Cherry’s voice or step 
within the house. I am afraid Mr. Erskine took a malign 


284 


285 


SAN CARLOS 

pleasure in keeping him where he was. The malignity was 
not deep, however, for once, when some scrap of a song 
floated down from an open upstairs window, there came a 
look over the face of Cadet Charlemagne Kindred — a sud- 
den light and love and joy — to which the father’s eyes gave 
such sympathetic answer that he was fain to screen them 
with his hand. 

“ Well, young sir,” he began at last, “ I suppose you want 
to know what I have to say to you ? ” 

“Yes, sir. Furlough ends next week,” Magnus an- 
swered, without looking round. 

“ Then back for two years more ? ” 

“ Back for two years, sir.” 

“ Magnus, what sort of an inner life have you lived at 
West Point ? They have made a soldier of you outwardly ; 
we can all see so much; but it is possible for a man to be 
that, and yet have no soldier’s heart within.” 

Magnus coloured deeply. 

“ Yes, sir,” he said. “ I know it. And that has been 
true of me a few times, Mr. Erskine. Never but once in 
any great thing.” 

“ There are no little things in right and wTong, boy.” 

“ No, sir. I should have said, in what people call 
great.” 

Mr. Erskine was silent with sudden pain; he had not 
looked for such an answer. Then Magnus turned round, 
and sat facing him, looking full up. 

“ I have told Cherry the whole thing, straight through,” 
he said ; “ and now I will tell you, sir, if you wish.” 

Mr. Erskine drew a breath of relief. If he had told 
Cherry, it could be nothing very bad ; and that he had told 
her half cleared it away. 

“ No, do not tell me,” he said. “If Cherry knows, that 
is enough. But, Magnus, I never expected you to lack the 
soldier heart ! ” 


286 SAN CARLOS 

The bo/s eyes flushed, and his lips were unsteady as he 
said: 

“Nor I, sir. You cannot possibly be half so disap- 
pointed in me as I was in myself.” 

There was a long pause. What that bit of schooling was 
to Magnus it would be hard to describe ; but he said not a 
word to shorten it. With head well up, and eyes looking 
gravely off at the fair landscape, of which they saw not a 
thing, so he sat ; and Mr. Erskine watched him. His whole 
heart went out to the boy in tenderness and up for him in 
prayer. Not a hero in his own right, perhaps, but a better, 
stronger thing is the man whom God keeps, and who trusts 
the Lord for all power to keep himself. 

“ The people that know their God, shall be strong and 
do exploits.” 

“You told Cherry,” the elder man began at length. 
“ And what did Cherry say ? ” 

“ Broke my heart into little pieces,” said Magnus briefly. 

It was Mr. Erskine’s turn to have wet eyes, though he 
smiled too. 

“ So ! ” he said. “ My boy, did you ever realise that you 
might break her heart ? ” 

“ Don’t ask me to realise it any more than I do, sir,” 
Magnus answered, with a troubled voice. “You see she 
minds things that some people call trifles.” 

“ Like a true woman,” said Mr. Erskine. “ I am glad 
she does.” 

“ So am I! ” said Magnus, with hearty emphasis. 
“ There is not a thing about her that I am not glad of. But 
I have told her everything, Mr. Erskine,” he added, “ and 
she forgives me.” 

“ Like a woman again,” thought the father. “ And she 
is ready to go with you to San Carlos?” 

“ I don’t know why you will persist in sending me there, 
sir,” Magnus said, with just a touch of impatience. “ That 


SAN CARLOS 287 

seems to be your favourite post. We have not spoken of 
San Carlos.” 

“ No, I suppose all your talk has been of Fortress Mon- 
roe, Governor’s Island, and West Point,” said Mr. Erskine, 
in a mocking tone. “ Those are the usual first posts for 
young second lieutenants.” 

“ West Point ! ” Magnus repeated scornfully. “ If you 
had the faintest idea, Mr. Erskine, what West Point is 
without Cherry, you would know that San Carlos will be 
the ranking post in the country when she gets there ! ” 

And the young man sprang to his feet, as if tenter hooks 
were restless things. 

Mr. Erskine held out his hand. “ Forgive me, my boy,” 
he said. “ I will not tease you any more. Go and find 
my treasure — and take her for your treasure, and guard her 
with your life. I do not mean in the common sense of 
dying for her, but in the nobler, costlier way of living for 
her. Shield her from any touch of shame, from any sense 
of loss, from any shadow of pain or sorrow that is not 
Heaven-sent. Live so that she will be prouder of you every 
day. Magnus, my darling is a trust.” 

There was something very sweet and solemn too in the 
way Magnus took the extended hand, and dropping on his 
knee kissed it earnestly. 

“ As such I take her, sir. My most dear trust, for every 
hour I live.” 

But then he sprang up again, threw his arms round Mr. 
Erskine with a hug like a young bear, and with a joyous 
shout of “ Ho for San Carlos ! ” darted away into the house 
to find Cherry. 


XXXVII 


RUSHED INTO CAMP 

Whither I must, I must. 

—King Henry IV. 

I F love does sometimes contrive to do for itself what 
the poet wished, and “ annihilate time,” over the 
“ space,” alas! it has generally no power. Those last 
days at home were to Magnus only quarter-days ; but once 
in the cars, and the miles drew out a lengthening chain that 
fairly seemed to clank in his hearing. Two years now, 
almost, away from those dear faces ; two years more with- 
out Cherry. 

To be sure, she was coming to first-class camp ; that was 
something. She had not said she would, but she must ; or 
he should simply die, and the authorities would have to 
send him home. 

As the train flew on, tossing everything behind its back, 
classmates began to straggle in, catching the express from 
one point or another; each State giving up its contingent 
of much-disgusted men, all equally gloomy and rebellious. 
What was the use of the old concern, anyhow? So they 
grumbled, keeping down each other’s low spirits, and ever 
and anon launching forth upon the departed joys of the last 
eight weeks ; opening their hearts less or more, according to 
the man. For in some coat pockets lay hid a little glove, 
carefully wrapped in rosy thoughts, and (I was going to 
say) here and there also a mitten, in different-hued tissue 
paper. But no, I take that back ; nobody ever gets a mitten 
on furlough, which is perhaps the reason why so many en- 
gagements date back to just that point. 

288 


RUSHED INTO CAMP 


289 


They felt very small just now, with love and home be- 
hind them; speeding away towards drums, Tacs and the 
reveille gun. I think some of them would have liked to 
slide off on a railroad “ Y,” and so ride backwards all the 
rest of the way, as under protest. 

Through all the grumbling Charlemagne Kindred was 
profoundly silent, only jerking his words out when they 
must come, in a way that made the others pronounce him 
“ a gingersnap.” But snaps are sweet, and he was not. 

“ Just think,” Rig said lugubriously, as he dropped into 
the seat by Magnus, “ this time to-morrow I shall not have 
even the show of a pocket.” 

“ That’s square ; you’ll have nothing to put in it.” 

“ And I’ve got three confinements to serve out the first 
thing,” said Crane, in front. 

“ All right — you went in for them,” said Magnus, with 
a comfortable consciousness of his own clear score. 

“ Didn’t ; I went out.” 

So the talk went on, and Magnus sat vaguely listening, 
seldom joining in, his whole self reaching back towards that 
beloved region whither he could not go. He longed to 
have the talk stop, the train stop, the world stop — almost : 
anything, to change the pitiless rush and roar with which 
he was speeded away from all he loved best. — Mile after 
mile, hour after hour; till he felt ready to start up and 
cuff somebody, if only so he could make a change. They 
talk of homesick plebs, and those fellows have it hard 
enough; but I doubt if it compares with the mal de pays 
of the furlough men when they come back. 

Cadet Kindred fought it, wrestled with it ; then suddenly 
turned and began to fight himself. For was not this West 
Point life the very thing singled out just now for him? 
The surest, best, and quickest way in which he could win 
education, position, and the means to live? The shortest 
road to that fair home for Cherry which tinted even his 


290 RUSHED INTO CAMP 

dreams? Had it not been the Lord’s appointment, far 
more than that which dated back to Congressman Iron- 
wood ? I do not think the ache died out, a bit ; but the an- 
tagonism did. Ready for duty, ready for all that might 
come with duty; yes, that should be true of him. As 
clearly as to-morrow he would answer to his name at roll- 
call, so now in his heart Charlemagne Kindred said : “ Yes, 
Lord, here ! ” What were they all praying for him at 
home? Not only, not chiefly, that he might win the 
honours ; but that his daily life might be an honour to the 
cause of Christ. 

The miles did not shorten after that; home still shone 
oh, how vividly ! and shoulder straps looked dim and hazy 
in the distance, and graduation but a myth; but the 
brave heart addressed itself to wait, and to work, and 
to endure. 

The great city was reached, and trunks and men conveyed 
across to where the swift steamer lay taking in her living 
freight. The whole class, gathered now from all sides of 
the great country, mustered in “ cits ” for the last time. 

As I think, it was a happy thing for these young school- 
men, that in the year of which I write, the “ rush ” was 
still in its glory; not yet found out to be unmilitary and 
dangerous. But now the first classman is supposed to for- 
get that he ever was a boy. 

For my part, I am glad to know this for a clear fallacy. 
No power on earth, not even time, can ever drive the mis- 
chief out of some men, or kill the frolic that lies hid be- 
hind those sober suits of grey. The most sedate bearing 
may belong to the plotter of the most consummate ex- 
ploits ; and the gravest men take your breath away telling 
what they have done. Ah, it is not the boy in them that 
needs watching, but the undisciplined man. 

But as I said, in those days the hopeless task was not 
begun. So when the boat reached the landing, and her 


RUSHED INTO CAMP 291 

signal went sounding up the hill, a rousing reception was 
ready. 

The furlough men had been watching with sober eyes, 
as one grey wall after another peered through the trees; 
and now they stepped wearily along the steep, winding road, 
bags in hand ; a dusty, rebellious lot. Then paused at the 
top of the hill and clustered together in front of the 
Library. 

Before them lay the cavalry plain, brown and powdery 
with sun and riding; the black guns of the Light Battery; 
then the camp. Rank after rank, in their exact order, the 
white tents gleamed in the sunshine. A moment the 
travellers saw it all. 

Then on the nearer side there gathered a grey and white 
swarm of figures; the furlough men spread themselves in 
a long single line, and, joining hands, began to double-time 
it across the plain. The grey figures dashed out across what 
was afterwards the famous “Post No. 6,” swooped down 
upon the furlough men, and “ rushed them into camp.” 

There followed ten minutes of utter Babel-like confu- 
sion; hats, caps, handbags, and men were on the ground 
or in the air, as the case might be. I think Mr. Starr lost 
his foothold on firm earth several times, while Magnus Kin- 
dred made things just as lively for one or two small first 
classmen. Men hugged each other or shook hands, accord- 
ing to the various degrees of size and friendship. The 
ladies on the seats clapped hands; the yearlings, on their 
way to dancing, turned and gave a cheer. Then the hubbub 
was over. The furlough men dived into their tents, and 
came forth to dinner roll-call full blown cadets, with very 
sober faces. The rush helped them for the minute, but 
it could not last ; they were a sorry-looking lot. 

Charlemagne Kindred came out too, after a while (any- 
thing but his own thoughts!), and was most effusively 
greeted by Miss Beguile and Miss Saucy. But being 


292 


RUSHED INTO CAMP 


promptly bid to stand and deliver a full, true, and unvar- 
nished account of the summer’s work and play, he got off 
as soon as he could and took his sergeant’s chevrons and his 
loneliness down flirtation for a walk. 

How unbearable these average girls were to him after 
Cherry ! Cherry, with her quaint, womanly ways, and low- 
toned voice, and earnest eyes ; a hundred times fairer in her 
fresh print dress than they with all their silks and 
streamers! “A trust” — ah, she was one worth having. 
And it was with a very moved and joyful heart that Cadet 
Kindred realised how surely upon his keeping of that trust, 
hung all the joy and brightness of her sweet life. Hers — 
and theirs ; four true women looking up to him. 

On the whole, it was a very good bit of thinking the 
young sergeant did there, with the lovely river sweeping by 
at his feet, and the leaves in a glad rustle behind him. 
Yes, every new bit of honour that he could win, in any line, 
would be gilded anew for them. He must send them a cor- 
rect drawing of even the new chevrons. 

Magnus again mounted the hill, but at the edge of the 
broken ground he faced about and took off his cap to the 
flag- 

. “ Glad to see you, old friend ! ” he said. “ Henceforth, 
you and I are going to run things together. I’m enlisted 
now, for all the storms that blow.” 


XXXVIII 

HIGH GROUND 


But never sit we down and say, 

“ There's nothing left but sorrow.'* 

We walk the Wilderness to day, 

The promised Land to-morrow. 

— Gerald Massey. 

T HERE was much wedging and crowding in the 
camp that night, lightened somewhat by the big 
hop which shortened the night for so many. 
Not for Magnus. He went to bed, thinking the night would 
be two nights long : quite sure he should not close his eyes. 

But youth, and health, and the long journey, and even 
sorrow, quite upset his calculations. When the hop men 
turned in, Magnus hardly roused up enough to give a short 
answer to some details; and when the sharp voice of the 
reveille gun spoke in his ear, it was as clear a wake-up — 
and alas! as disgusted a one — as Cadet Kindred had ever 
known. But breaking camp at least would be welcome: 
hard work suited his mood just now much better than play. 

Yet before the hour drew on, he strolled out towards 
the visitors 5 seats ; the exquisite morning, the dainty wreaths 
of mist, and the sweet, pure air, making him so homesick 
that he craved even a chatter of tongues that should stop 
his thoughts. 

The seats were a waving line of colour. Hats turned up, 
and hats turned down; bonnets too small to be seen, and 
hats like umbrellas; ribands, laces, streamers of every 
kind. Plenty of grey coats, too; first classmen and year- 
lings in their glory, with other disconsolate furlough men, 

m 


294 


HIGH GROUND 

searching the crowd for a friend, if possibly such a thing 
remained to them east of the Rockies, or north of Mason 
and Dixon’s line. Everywhere a busy chatter, with intro- 
ductions, greetings, inquiries, and much swinging of cadet 
caps. Sugar plums abounded. On the grass a group of 
children sunned themselves in front of the grown-up people, 
sometimes aping their ways. 

Magnus was taken possession of rapturously, — had to 
touch a half-dozen gloves in as many seconds. 

“ And where have you been all summer, Mr. Kindred ? 99 
Miss Fashion inquired in gracious tones. 

“In a much better place than this old camp, Miss 
Fashion.” 

“That goes without saying,” chimed in Miss Saucy. 
“ Any place where you were, would of course overtop the 
rest of the world.” 

“It might,” Magnus answered, thinking of the oak 
shadows where he had sat with Cherry. I am not so sure 
that he heard Miss Fashion’s next words, looking over 
her head towards the Western sky. The West! The 
West! 

“ And of course your desire for study is immense,” the 
young lady went on, a little louder. 

“ Quite insatiable ! ” 

“ Oh, you’re too good to be true ! ” said Miss Saucy. 

“ But don’t you feel all out of training ? ” said another 
girl. “I should think it would come awfully hard at 
first.” 

“ On the contrary, I feel in better training than ever in 
my life before.” 

“But that is awful!” said the Kitten. “Back from 
furlough c in training’? Why, Magnus, you’ll come out 
blue.” 

“ I expect it,” said Magnus, with a bow. “ That is what 
I am aiming for.” 


HIGH GROUND 


295 


“Now that I call mean,” said the young lady; “taking 
one up so. How sharp you have grown all of a sudden ! ” 

“ Best let him alone, Puss,” said Miss Saucy, “ or you’ll 
cut your fingers. “ He’s been at the seaside, eating razors.” 

“Using ’em, too,” said the Kitten, gazing at Magnus. 
“ Didn’t it go to your heart to cut off your moustache ? ” 

“ Everything goes to my heart. That is my weak point.” 

“ What was the last arrival ? ” demanded Miss Saucy. 

“That drum.” And in answer to the warning rub-a- 
dub, Cadet Kindred touched his cap to the ladies and 
crossed the green strip in front of the colour line. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” sighed Miss Kent, a pretty blonde in her 
first West Point season, and who had taken the whole year- 
ling class as near to her heart as is usual on such occasions ; 
“ I shall just cry, I know I shall, when that camp goes 
down! Think, girls, there won’t be any place to go to 
spend the day ! ” 

“ The seats under the trees,” suggested Miss Beguile. 

“ Oh, yes, you can sit there as long as you please,” said 
Minna Kent, “ but they can’t come and sit with you. Some 
old dowager always pokes along and turns them out.” 

“ And if the men look at you in ranks, you’re none the 
wiser,” said Miss Saucy. “Do you know, I just made 
Clinch look at me the other night as he came round Towser. 
He was acting-adjutant. It’s the meanest thing to break 
camp before cold weather. There it goes ! — our camp ! ” 

But it was the same old story, after all. Always crushed 
sugar plums under foot and withered flowers ; the air filled 
with heart-beats that nobody heard, and glances that no 
one saw. 

The cadets get rid of their plumes and trappings; the 
girls hold fast to all they have ; and away they all go, for 
walks, talks, and flirtations. Two girls to a cadet, three 
cadets to a girl, or two very special chums together. 

Among the solitary stragglers was Charlemagne Kindred, 


296 


HIGH GROUND 

He waited till every girl was out of sight, dodged or shook 
off his loitering comrades, and then, with steady step went 
straight across the plain and took stand beneath the waving 
folds of his old love, the flag. 

Two whole years — two years and three months almost — 
since the first day when he stood in that circling shadow 
and took his vow of brave allegiance. Leaning back now 
against the white pole, he tried to scan the two years’ 
record. 

In the main, he had kept his vow ; love had never faltered, 
nor fealty. But he knew now, far better than he knew 
then, that for this love as for the other he must live , as well 
as be ready to die. The honour of the Stars and Stripes 
was at stake, wherever an American fought out his personal 
life-fight with evil. On harder fields sometimes than Cha- 
pultepec, and with no earthly glory for reward. No name 
on a tall column, no tablet in chapel or hall. Unknown, 
perhaps, while the fight lasted : no notice taken, until the 
Great Captain shall speak the “ Well done,” when he comes 
to survey the field. 

Looking up at the red, white, and blue, Magnus said to 
himself that devotion, purity, and truth were the real de- 
fenders of the country; winning victories far beyond what 
powder and shot could ever gain ; keeping the flag not only 
flying, but unstained. 

"Winning victories” — he repeated to himself, looking 
up again at the lovely waving folds of the flag: " positive, 
as well as negative.” 

Bible words are very positive. 

" He that is not with me is against me,” said the Lord 
Jesus. " He that gathereth not with me, scattereth.” 

" But they don’t leave us time for anything like that,” 
Magnus thought, in half excuse. "It takes so long just 
to be; to look after your own prayers and reading. There 
isn’t any chance to do ” 




HIGH GROUND 


297 


And now he remembered the lovely, constant shining of 
Cherry’s life in even the commonest, everyday things; the 
halo that was always about her. Set her at any sort of 
work, in any sort of company, and you could never doubt 
for a moment whose she was and whom she served. The 
King’s seal was there. Such a life is positive, by its very 
nature. 

" But then she is like nobody else,” Magnus went on, as 
his rapturous thoughts finished off with a long, heavy sigh. 
" And she has a little space to breathe in, too. But here — 
just math, and chem., study and drill, from dawn to dark.” 
Then other words came up before his eyes. 

"Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily; as to the Lord, and 
not to men.” 

" Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name 
of the Lord Jesus.” 

"Even those old lessons,” commented Cadet Kindred. 
" I rather suspect I’ve been setting my study hooks at the 
wrong angle. I know Cherry says that drudgery fades out, 
if you write the name of Jesus on it. Wonder if it would 
work so with anybody but her ? ” 

And a long, dull procession of days rose up in sight; 
ea<?h one loaded down with hard, monotonous work. Not 
prettily varied, with one day this and next day that, but 
a steady, straight on pull in the same lines, for weeks to- 
gether. 

" And we can’t turn and twist about as you do, old flag,” 
he said, " but have got to stand attention (or sit it) every 
time. It would feel sort o’ good, if we could just choose our 
own positions for firing off blunders.” 

" Whatever in the world are you holding up the flagstaff 
for?” said Rig’s astonished voice, as that young man came 
up from among the guns. " Beastly dull here, isn’t it ? I 
sav, Kin, when’s that awfully pretty sister of yours com- 
ing?” 


298 


HIGH GROUND 


“ Which one ? 99 

“ Well, both, then,” corrected Rig. 

“ After you graduate — if you ever do.” 

“ You may well say if. But you’ll be gone yourself, 
then.” 

“ Maybe I shall not let them come at all. There are too 
many girls here now.” And Magnus cast cynical eyes 
towards several free-and-easy damsels who were sauntering 
across the plain, well attended. 

“ There they go,” he said ; “ men and girls and parasols. 
And the parasols are the only things in the lot with a grain 
of sense. Just hear that pink girl laugh! She’s got 
Duncy in tow, telling him : ‘ Oh, Mr. Duncy ! you are so 
amusing ! 9 ” 

“ Shouldn’t wonder if she wasn’t. I think he is, some- 
times, myself,” said Rig. 

“ He is a consistent goose,” said Magnus. 

“ Come, now, Kin, you’re out of humour,” Rig said 
soothingly. “ You’ll feel better after dinner.” 

“No I shall not,” Magnus answered crossly. “Last 
Thursday I had chicken pie and apple fritters.” 

Rig gave a groan. 

“ Well,” he said, “ it can’t be helped, so eat all you can. 
And there goes the drum.” 

The two set off for barracks, but if Magnus had eased 
his mind, he had certainly given his heart an extra load. 

“Kindred’s as glum as a post,” remarked a smart first 
classman. “ Easy to see his girl’s gone back on him.” 

Magnus caught the words, but then came a thrill of joy. 
No, that could never be true; and his girl was the very best 
in all the world. The sights and sounds about him grew 
indistinct; and with thoughts two thousand miles away, 
Cadet Kindred finished his dinner and never knew what it 
was. Only “Company A, rise!” awaked him from his 
dream. 


XXXIX 


MORE GIRLS 

Pray to God, but continue to row to the shore. 

— Human Proverb. 

B UT work did come hard ! The reveille gun was such 
an impertinence after the lazy summer mornings 
at home. Every officer figured as an enemy, every 
drill was an unmitigated bore. And despite what people 
say about changed seasons, it rained Saturday afternoon 
then, as it always does now ; while if it rained other days 
too, yet it was sure to clear up in time for drill — or the 
cadets thought so, which did as well. 

Such meals, too, three times a day! Fair enough in 
ordinary, and easily disposed of by the healthy young appe- 
tites, whetted with hard work and open air; but thrown 
into utter disgrace just now by the background of 
“ mother’s” dainties and “home” cream. They were 
sober enough, these furlough men. But it is hard for even 
quiet steeds to go calmly back from pasture into the traces ; 
some other fiery young coursers were simply rampant. A 
good deal of mischief went on in those first weeks in bar- 
racks. 

Magnus Kindred kept out of it, partly because he had 
Cherry’s image before his eyes; but also because he liked 
his freedom better than anything else, and had never 
learned to confound license with liberty. No amount of 
fun on Monday, would pay him for spending the next Sat- 
urday afternoon on the area. 

So while other men “ ran it ” to the Hotel or to High- 
land Falls, paying that unpleasant penalty, Cadet Kindred 
299 


300 


MORE GIRLS 

kept his playtime free, taking long, long walks over the 
mountain or in other leafy regions where the squirrels and 
woodpeckers had it all to themselves. Studying the fanci- 
ful piebald of the autumn leaves, gathering the quaint yel- 
low witch-hazel blooms, and the white ladies’ tresses; and 
bringing back to barracks such a clear head for study that 
he went up hand over hand. Men said he was in love — 
which was certainly true; and some, that he was trying to 
“bootlick the Supe,” which was as certainly false. And 
again others, that he was “ boning Willet’s Point.” But 
no ; he was doing better, and simply “ boning ” the highest 
stand he could reach. 

Meanwhile, to grace the lovely fall weather, several new 
flowers — or birds — might be seen at parade and on the side- 
walk. And Magnus had been duly presented, and had done 
his first devoirs to the fair strangers. But after that he 
thought he might please himself again, and muse and climb 
among the beloved old rocks. 

“ Where does Mr. Kindred go every Saturday?” Miss 
Berry demanded of Rig one day. “You know I’m visit- 
ing at the corner house, and can watch both ways. But 
while I’m running from one window to the other, he 
always contrives to vanish; and I never can tell into which 
house.” 

“ Of course I cannot say, Miss J o,” Rig answered, “ be- 
cause you know I never get round the corner. The minute 
I see you watching for me, I stop and come in.” 

“ Watching for you ! I think I see myself,” said Miss 
Berry. 

“ You’ll see something very sweet, when you do,” said 
Rig politely. 

“ It ’ll be something pretty sour, if you’re not careful,” 
retorted Miss Berry. “ But say — I’m awfully curious to 
know. Where does he go most, Saturdays ? ” 

“ Why, nowhere, to visit, they say,” said the hostess. 



CADET ROOM IN BARRACKS 






































I 


/ 















‘ 


4 














MORE GIRLS 301 

“ Isn’t there someone he cares about out West, Mr. 
McLean ? ” 

" He has two charming sisters.” 

" Oh, of course ! — all you cadets have charming sisters,” 
said Miss J o impatiently. " Anybody else ? ” 

“ Lots of girls there,” Rig replied. " They haven’t all 
come East by several.” 

" What do Western girls look like ? ” 

"Angels, some of ’em,” said Rig, thinking of Violet’s 
eyes. 

" Did you see Mr. Kindred’s best girl ? ” 

"I rather suspect I saw three of them,” Rig answered 
slowly. 

"Three! Why, the man’s a Turk. Wasn’t one better 
than the other ? ” 

" I thought so,” said Rig. " It’s a matter of opinion, I 
suspect.” 

" Oh, shut up ! ” said Miss Jo, with beautiful ease of 
manner. " It’s no more possible to get the truth out of a 
cadet, than ” 

" Than to get it without him,” suggested Rig. 

" I’ll get at it somehow, you’d better believe,” said Miss 
Jo. "What were these three girls called?” 

" One of them seemed to have a sort of French title ; the 
other two answered to plain English.” 

"French — that’s a likely story. What do you know 
about French?” 

"Not much,” Rig confessed. "Don’t be hard on me, 
Miss Jo. I expect to be found in January, but you might 
leave a fellow hopes till then.” 

" And you will not tell us a thing about Mr. Kindred,” 
joined in another girl. 

"Well, now”— said Rig, — "that’s putting it rather 
strong. But here comes Kin himself; he ought to know. 
He’s of age, ask him, as the Jews said in the Bible.” 


302 


MORE GIRLS 


And Mr. McLean stepped to the window and hailed his 
friend, who had not had the faintest intention of calling 
upon anybody that afternoon. 

However, so summoned, there was nothing else to do. 
So Magnus came in, hung up his cap in the hall, shook 
hands with his hostess and the other ladies, and then, after 
the manner of cadet chaff, asked Rig what he was fooling 
there for? wasting his own time as well as Miss Jo’s? 

“ She said she hadn’t any to lose, so I’m safe there,” an- 
swered Mr. McLean. 

“ Make the most of it, — that won’t carry you far,” said 
Miss Jo. “What do you suppose he has been doing, Mr. 
Kindred ? ” 

“ Could not guess — when it is Rig.” 

“Absolutely quoted the Bible to me. I came so near 
fainting away that he called you in for a tonic.” 

“ Quoted it pertinently ? ” 

“ No, impertiently. Oh, Mr. Kindred, will you let me 
have a walk after chapel on Sunday? ” 

“ Certainty — but I cannot take you to get it.” 

“ I suppose that passes for cadet wit,” said Miss Jo, 
pouting. “Why cannot you, pray?” 

“ Something else to do: a previous.” 

“ You can’t fool me so,” said Miss Jo, shaking her flaxen 
head. “ You know your best girl isn’t here.” 

“ What then ? ” 

“ Then there is nobody else you need walk with. I think 
you’re very unkind, Mr. Kindred. And I’ve got such 
a box of candy as you never saw.” 

“ Let me see it now,” said Magnus, smiling. “ Destroy 
ignorance wherever you find it.” 

“ I gness I will ! No, I’ll give that walk to Mr. Clayton, 
and nobody else shall have a crumb.” 

“ Or a smile.” 

“ Good for Clayton,” said Rig. “ Then he won’t have to 


303 


MORE GIRLS 

dead-beat to the hospital Monday morning, but can go there 
for good and sufficient reasons.” 

“ Aren’t you ashamed ! — as if my candy was poison,” said 
Miss Jo indignantly. 

“ Mr. Kindred,” said the hostess, " my curiosity is astir 
about this c best girl ’ of yours ; I should like to know your 
taste. What is she like ? ” 

“ Like herself : I know nobody else,” said Magnus. 

“ So then she really does exist somewhere ? ” 

“ Why, you asked about her.” 

“ Yes, of course I did ; but then I didn’t know but Mr. 
McLean had been fooling us.” 

“ Would he dare do that ? ” 

“ It’s my belief he fools about everything,” said Miss Jo. 
“ And you too. I don’t think you cadets know how to be 
serious about a single thing.” 

“ Grinds are almost the staff of life here,” said Magnus. 
“ But you do Rig un justice : he’ll be serious enough when 
he gets zero in wave motion.” 

“ Don’t speak of wave motion Saturday afternoon,” 
pleaded Rig. “ It’s the only time in the week when any- 
thing stands still and right side up. The air waves, and 
the light waves ; and not a thing is steady, from Saturday 
night to Saturday noonday.” 

“ I hope you do not study wave motion on Sunday,” said 
the hostess reprovingly. 

“ Only practises it in chapel, you know,” said Magnus. 
"Rig goes to sleep systematically, and keeps up in wave 
motion by a series of graceful nods.” 

“ Ha ! ha ! ” laughed Rig. “ Well, I sometimes do, that’s 
a fact. Somebody stuck a pin into me last Sunday. 
Wasn’t you, was it, Kin ? ” 

“ It was not my pin. Come away, Rig, you’ve got an- 
other visit to pay before retreat,” and the two bowed them- 
selves out. 


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MORE GIRLS 


"I don’t believe I’ll call on Miss Saucy to-day,” said 
Rig, as they walked along. “I got thinking about your 
handsome sisters, and that takes the taste out of other 
girls.” 

“ Oh, does it ! ” said Magnus mockingly. “ If you say 
that again, I’ll report you to the Com. for a cannibal. 
There — the Kitten is tapping on the window for you, and 
you can go to Miss Saucy later. Run in; there’s a lot of 
girls staying there.” 

And Rig ran in. But in the hall, while giving himself 
those finishing touches in which even men indulge, Rig 
found that Cadet Kindred had slipped away to parts un- 
known. 


XL 


ON FORT PUT 

Think truly, and thy thoughts 
Shall the world’s famine feed ; 
Speak truly, and each word of thine 
Shall be a fruitful seed. 

Live truly, and thy life shall be 
A great and noble creed. 


— Dr. Bonar. 


0, Cadet Kindred was in no mood for “ other 



girls 99 that day ; had he not just been writing his 


heart out to Cherry? and was not her last letter 


lying perdu up his sleeve? You could not expect him to 
have any relish for common doings. 

So with the easy, steady gait which I wish all men might 
copy, Magnus went swiftly on to the west end of the offi- 
cers’ row. Past Miss Saucy, who signalled him from her 
friend’s porch; past Miss Bee, who bowed from an open 
window ; past the talk and the laughter, the scent of choco- 
late, the certainty of sugar plums. Then at the last house 
of the old “ west limits ” he turned sharply round the cor- 
ner, and began to mount the hill. Small danger of “ other 
girls ” here, or of other men, unless a few homesick strollers 
like himself; and these were passed with only a nod. 
The real denizens of the roadway were wild and sweet as 
the day. Bed squirrels and brown chipmunks darted 
across the path, whisked into holes, or chattered in the 
treetops ; “ the sound of dropping nuts,” the rustle of leaves, 
the voice of a crow or a gull, only made the stillness more 
exquisite. The rocks were cushioned with mosses; the 
ferns and the early fallen leaves of chestnut and butternut 


305 


306 ON FORT PITT 

made a lovely carpet all about ; the clear air seemed strung 
and tuned to the last pitch of harmony. Far down, down, 
the winding river, in its varying shades of blue and grey, 
flowed silently among the hills, flecked with the white wings 
of two or three sloops and schooners; but all too distant 
for the murmur of the little waves, the creaking of cordage, 
to reach him. 

Cadet Kindred paused several times at points where the 
view opened ; then addressing himself to the hill again, and 
choosing the old broken, steep-pitched track of a hundred 
years ago. The Revolutionary style suited his mood to- 
day; and he sped up the last steep incline with a will; 
passed through the old sallyport, sprang up the parapet, 
and sat down to gaze. 

At his feet the rough hillside went in tumbling, break- 
ing fashion down to the little fringe of houses in the offi- 
cers’ row; and beyond them the green plain spread out its 
fair expanse, with Barracks and Academic Library and 
Chapel, walling it in on the south. Elsewhere the river, 
and beyond that again the hills. From above the trees on 
Trophy Point the fair, curling folds of the flag, with an 
action which would have been lazy had there been any call 
for haste, lifted and drooped at the top of the tall white 
staff. Magnus Kindred stood up again and saluted, with 
a flourish. 

“ Yes, old friend,” he said, “ we are sworn comrades now, 
whatever happens. One full summer more for me here, 
and then away to the ends of the earth: but that blessed 
old rag will fly just as well at San Carlos as at West 
Point, and be just as ready to read me a lesson.” 

And with that, Magnus stretched himself out on the 
green slope, pulled forth Cherry’s letter, and read it 
through twice. 

Then he studied the flag again; musing over things he 
had heard and read. Of the men who ran up the colours 


ON FORT PUT 307 

when their ship was sinking in the deep, dark sea; of 
standards dyed with the life-blood of their defenders. Of 
the failures that yet were a triumphant success. 

“ My half day’s work is done, 

And this is all my part. 

I give a patient God 
My patient heart: 

“ And grasp his banner still, 

Though all its blue be dim ; 

These stripes, no less than stars, 

Lead after him.” 

u I wonder if that fellow loved anybody,” Magnus ques- 
tioned with himself, a stricture coming over his heart at 
thought of the young soldier under whose death-pillow the 
brave, pitiful lines were found. “ And I wonder if I could 
have said it in his place? But that is what it means. 
That is just what I have to do for the old Stars and 
Stripes — and for the Lord’s banner.” 

And secure against the criticisms of chipmunks and 
chickadees, Magnus began at the old ballad of the “ Star- 
Spangled Banner,” and sang it straight through. 

“ Well sung, and to the purpose,” said a pleasant voice, 
and Magnus started up, to find a gentleman close behind 
him; and, as he saw at a glance, no less a person than his 
friend of the candidate journey. 

It was plain, however, that Mr. Wayne did not know 
him. How could he find in the close-cropped hair the 
wayward, curly locks of two years ago? or see, in this 
happy compound of uniform and drill, the homesick boy 
whom he had cheered and comforted? 

“ Do not let me disturb you,” said the newcomer, taking 
a seat near Magnus. “ I was wandering round among the 
old walls, thinking how much had crumbled and how much 
grown up since their day, not knowing there was anyone 
up here but myself. And when suddenly the dear old 


308 


ON FORT PUT 

song rang out, I could not help coming near to listen. Has 
it come into fashion again, in these latter days ? ” 

“ Not especially, that I know of,” said Magnus. “ But 
I was brought up on it.” 

“ So was I. And where were you brought up ? ” 

Magnus named his State. 

“ Strange ! ” said Mr. Wayne. “ The first boy I ever 
spoke to who was coming to West Point was from that 
State ; and now so is also the first full-fledged cadet I meet 
with here.” 

“ Yes, we have a good representation from all our dis- 
tricts,” said Magnus. 

“ Do you men from the same State always hold together 
in any special way?” 

“ Against all the rest of the world, yes,” said Magnus. 
“ But we often choose our chums from the Antipodes.” 

“ For private and personal reasons, rather than public ; 
I see. But then of course you know them all, more or less ; 
and so you must know the man I am after.” 

“ A relation of yours, sir ? ” Magnus inquired gravely. 

“ Oh, no, not at all ; only an acquaintance of a day and a 
night. But I should like to see him again very much ; in 
fact that was why I stopped over a day here. I wonder if 
he is in the corps still ? Must be, I think ; he did not look 
like a fellow to be ‘ found * in anything, — unless caution 
and self-control.” 

“That’s a bad showing,” said Magnus. “Pd rather 
chance it in Math.” 

“You must know him, of course, if he is here,” Mr. 
Wayne went on; “ for he was from your State, I know. I 
had his name down — and I also had my pocket-book stolen ! 
Can you tell over the list of your State delegation? ” 

So Magnus began. 

“Smith, J., 2d; Jones, L.; Devius, E. ; Smith, T. A.; 
Marston, Kindred ” 


ON FORT PUT 309 

“ That’s the man ! ” broke in Mr. Wayne ; “ Charlemagne 
Kindred. And you say he is here still ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, he’s here,” said Magnus, with a half groan. 

“ Doing well ? ” 

“ Doing all sorts of ways. He is just back from furlough, 
and as blue as a mouldy cheese.” 

“ Back from furlough ! Ah, then he has seen his mother 
again. That ought .to cure him of doing ‘ all sorts of 
ways.’ Where does he stand in his class ? ” 

“ Oh, he keeps out of the Immortals,” said Magnus with 
a shrug. “ Might max it oftener, if he didn’t read so many 
magazines and write so many letters.” 

“ Letters, hey? These c left behind’ girls have a good 
deal to answer for. And yet such a trust as a woman’s life 
and happiness, ought to steady any man, and put him at his 
best.” 

“ He has four just such trusts,” said Magnus. “ I don’t 
know that they’d all die if he went to the bad, but two of 
them would.” 

“ Four — you seem to know him very well,” said 
Mr. Wayne, turning to look more narrowly at his com- 
panion. 

“ I don’t know, sir : sometimes I think I do, sometimes 
not. He takes me all by surprise every now and then,” said 
Magnus. 

But with that he turned his eyes full upon Mr. Wayne, 
and the recognition was instant. 

“ And this is you ! ” said Mr. Wayne. “ I see it now. 
Indeed I think I felt it all along. Sit over there, and let 
me look at you.” 

So Magnus changed his seat for another, and went 
through a new sort of inspection; differing in toto from 
that of any member of the tactical department. For Mr. 
Wayne’s eyes passed rapidly over grey cloth and bell but- 
tons (Magnus feeling quite sure the while that any dulness 


310 ON FORT PUT 

or disorder there would have been noted) and came to the 
young face, with a look so searching and wise that the sun- 
burnt cheeks reddened, and the eyes went down. Only 
for a moment, however : then they met the search squarely, 
and with a laugh. 

“ Yes, sir, 55 said Cadet Kindred, “ that is just about what 
I am. 55 

Privately, Mr. Wayne had been thinking to himself that 
just what he saw was a remarkably fine-looking fellow, 
whom anybody might be proud to call son or brother. For 
the eyes were steady and true ; and when the face broke in 
a smile or a laugh the mouth had the same utterly clean 
look which had marked it two years ago. Mr. Wayne noted 
it all, and drew a deep breath of rejoicing. 

“ I give most humble and hearty thanks, 55 he said, rev- 
erently lifting his hat. Magnus sprang up and came back 
to his old seat. 

“Were you so doubtful of me, sir? 55 he said. “And 
what made you doubtful? 55 

“ Not doubtful of you, my boy, but certain of the world. 
And the world — even this little world here — -is a hard 
place. 55 

“ This is an awful place ! 55 said Magnus. 

“ You think so now, because you are just back from fur- 
lough. But you will find the world power in full force 
still, when you get to some far-off frontier post. Very 
few lives have a steady fair breeze straight into heaven. 

‘ Ye must take the wind in your fane if ye will fetch Christ, 5 
said old Samuel Rutherford; and most of us find it so. 
But then, ‘ How sweet is the wind that bloweth out of the 
airth where Christ is. 5 55 

And Magnus remembered instantly that ever since he 
came to West Point, he had hailed the west wind, because 
it seemed to come from home. 

“How can you always tell, sir, whence it comes? 55 he 


ON FORT PUT 311 

asked suddenly. “ Being disagreeable doesn’t prove a 
thing right.” 

“ Truly no. But you know what Christ himself is, Mr. 
Kindred; study him, his character, his will, his throne. 
It is not hard to match your colours, if you are really so 
minded. West Point is not so unlike everywhere else as 
you seem to think. I remember a young man who went 
from here to Texas, and wrote back that he was still fight- 
ing the world, the flesh, and the devil. Finding the world 
perhaps a little less down there, but the flesh and the devil 
about as usual. And so you will find it. ‘ The kingdom 
of God is within you ’ — not outside : whether at Governor’s 
Island, or San Carlos.” 

“ What makes you speak of San Carlos, sir ? ” Magnus 
said, with almost a start. 

“ One of the worst posts in the army, is it not ? — or 
counted so ? ” 

“ I am not afraid of San Carlos,” said Magnus decidedly. 
“ The devil always has to clear out, when an angel comes 
in.” 

Mr. Wayne turned and looked at him. 

“ So ! ” he said ; “ that is all settled, is it ? But no, my 
young sir: Satan held a dispute with an archangel once, 
long enough for some pretty strong words on both sides. 
And you are going to take an angel to San Carlos ! ” 

Almost just what Mr. Erskine had said. 

“ Were you ever there, sir ? ” Magnus asked. 

“ Oh, yes.” 

“ Doesn’t the place need angels ? ” 

And now Mr. Wayne laughed. 

“ You have the best of me there,” he said. “ Yes, not a 
doubt of that, it does. And it is the very place that the 
white wings love to brighten if they can. But Mr. Kin- 
dred, if your particular angel is to live at San Carlos — or 
anywhere — and not break her heart ; spread her white wings 


312 


ON FORT PUT 

and fly away from earth and you together; you have got 
to fight the devil yourself; hand to hand, and wherever 
you find him. These earthly angels are not quite so robust 
as the old painters make out the heavenly to be.” 

“ She is the very centre of my life ! ” cried Magnus. But 
Mr. Wayne sighed. 

“ It happened once,” he said, “ that a young graduate of 
West Point brought his three-months’ bride not to San 
Carlos, but to Fortress Monroe. Of course, the ‘ pleasant 
fellows’ of the garrison went to work to entertain him, 
and one of them told me this story : 

“‘We had a little supper party,’ he said. ‘Not very 
large, but correct and choice; and we kept it up pretty 
late ; and X. Y. got more than he could manage gracefully. 
So some of the stronger heads among us set out to get him 
home. Late, as I said; servants asleep, lights out, and I 
guess we knocked and rang more than once. Then X. Y.’s 
young wife came down, candle in hand, to let him in. 
Poor girl — I did feel sorry for her when I saw her white 
face, as the candle flared out upon him.’ ” 

There came up before Charlemagne Kindred, as his 
friend spoke, the vision of another face; so blanched, so 
stricken in its grief, and all for him. He bowed his head 
upon his hands. 

Mr. Wayne asked never a word. He looked at the fine 
young man beside him, not knowing just what he might 
have touched, and then away over the fair hills and the 
soft flowing river. What a world! Peace written every- 
where on the exquisite setting; and everywhere in the 
picture the sharp life and death conflict. Then the glad 
words in the Revelation made answer : 

“And I saw, and, behold, a white horse; and he that 
sat on him had a bow : and he went forth, conquering and 
to conquer.” 

“ Amen ! ” Mr. Wayne said aloud : adding half under his 


ON FORT PUT 


313 


breath : “ e Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that 
thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow 
down at thy presence ! ’ ” 

Magnus looked up in surprise. 

“ Only an old habit of mine,” Mr. Wayne said, smiling 
at him. “ I live so much alone, that I very often talk to 
myself for lack of a listener.” 

“ Do you want to see these mountains flow down ? ” Mag- 
nus asked, gazing in his turn at the fair hills. 

“ Not these in themselves ; only I long for all which the 
prophet’s words imply. To see the crooked made straight, 
and the rough places plain; to hear the royal proclama- 
tion of the Prince of Peace sound out across this burdened 
earth ; one could be willing to have ‘ every mountain and 
island ’ moved out of their places. To have that trumpet 
blast fill all the air: 

“ ‘ The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever 
and ever.’ 

“No more miserable captives to the power of evil; no 
more strong men ‘whom Satan hath bound at his own 
will.’ 

“ No midnight shades, no clouded sun, 

But sacred, high, eternal noons. 

“How naturally the words follow: 

“ ‘ We give thee thanks, 0 Lord, because thou hast taken 
to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.’ ” 

Then Magnus began and told him the whole story ; pour- 
ing out details, and not sparing himself in the least. And 
Mr. Wayne listened in deepest silence, with a grave, tender 
face which drew on confidence. Magnus did not once name 
Cherry, only at the end he said : 

“ I told her everything. And if I thought I should ever 
again make her look as she did then> I think I would shoot 
myself.” 


314 


ON FORT PUT 


“ Powder is very cheap,” Mr. Wayne said slowly. “ It is 
the meanest, smallest, silliest backdoor through which a 
man ever shirked his difficulties. But to live a strong life, 
to have one’s self in hand and keep a tight rein, that costs, 
and costs tremendously; demands a man’s whole will 
power, and the mighty grace of God. There is no promise 
whatever to the one who runs away; they are all : ‘ To 
him that overcometh.’ ” 

“Yes sir, I know,” Magnus answered him. “But 
instead of costing, it seems to me the only life that 
pays.” 

“And where do you get dividends, but from invest- 
ments?” said Mr. Wayne quickly. “ You gain from what 
you put in: knowledge from study, health from exercise, 
advance from toil. You bone discipline, and you stand 
one ; you bone mathematics, and you max it every time.” 

“ No, you don’t,” said Magnus. “ Not some of us.” 

“ Yes you do. Not all just alike, perhaps; one man puts 
in more brains than another, and so maybe gets larger re- 
turns; but the slower fellow maxes it for him ; the divi- 
dends are as large as the stock will warrant. And to my 
mind, that is the only ambition worth a copper. I’ve no 
patience with this trying to get ahead of somebody else 
in any line. Get ahead of yourself; break your own 
record.” 

“ Not making other men your measure,” Magnus said. 

“No. That’s the way Paul puts it: ‘I press toward 
the mark for the prize ’ ; not to get ahead of Peter or James 
or John. The colour markers always in advance, flagging 
out new ground.” 

“ What do you count a man’s colour markers, sir? ” Mag- 
nus said, looking amused. 

“Perhaps clean purpose of heart and loyalty to God 
would come near it. The Great Captain has thrown open 
to you— -to every young man — a wondrous Promised Land. 


315 


ON FORT PUT 

He says : ‘ Go in and possess it. Ye are well able to over- 
come.’ The land is not all ‘fish and cucumbers and 
melons/ with a good deal of garlic, like the Egypt degrada- 
tion and bondage; but ‘a goodly land of springs and 
fountains, of oil olive and honey; whose stones are iron, 
and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.’ I do not 
believe you cadets are half aggressive enough.” 

“ In what way, sir ? ” 

“ Every way. Suppose your colour markers had been up 
to their duty on that sad night, and you pressing forward 
for the Lord’s ‘ Well done.’ ” 

“Yes,” Magnus answered, with a thrill of pain that 
somehow got into his voice. 

“Or suppose,” Mr. Wayne went on, laying a tender 
hand on the young man’s shoulder, “ suppose you had been 
praying for those other men whose ways you knew; work- 
ing with them, persuading them into the service of 
Christ ? ” 

“Oh, that could not be,” Mr. Kindred said decidedly. 
“ At least, I might pray for them, of course, but I could 
not say much.” 

“ Why not?” 

“ Against cadet code, sir. We let each other pretty well 
alone.” 

“ Cadet code ! ” Mr. Wayne repeated. “ You tease each 
other now and then, I fancy ? ” 

“ Always ! ” 

“ And laugh at each other ? ” 

“ Without stint.” 

“ Perhaps introduce each other occasionally ? ” 

“ Why, of course, sir ! ” Magnus answered. 

« And probably the cadet code would permit you to pull 
a man out of the river, or tell him the barracks were 
ablaze? It is framed only against the important things, 
hey ? ” 


316 


ON FORT PUT 

“ Don’t yon call it important to pull a man out of the 
river ? ” Magnus asked, with a laugh. 

“ Rather. Nothing like pulling him into the king- 
dom.” 

The clouds sailed silently by, river and hill darkening 
and brightening as the shadows fell and passed ; the leaves 
rustled softly among the oak branches and stirred with a 
different music among the pines. Then from far down 
below sounded a drum — Magnus started up. 

“ Thank you, Mr. Wayne ! ” he said earnestly. “ Come 
to the guard-house before call to quarters. I must go.” 

“ I will walk down with you,” said his friend. 

“But I must run!” 

And away he went, springing down the hill through every 
short cut that could be found ; the grey and white showing, 
and hiding, and coming out again further on. 

Mr. Wayne watched him with great interest, taking his 
own pace the while down the hill; and now, as he went, 
from every other quarter came just such flying figures. 
From the woods, from Flirtation, from the river; from 
lingering last words on doorsteps, and girls and bonbons 
in the houses. Hastening along with the graceful ease of 
long practice, hurrying to lose themselves behind the grim 
grey walls of barracks. 

And Mr. Wayne watched and laughed ; but then his eyes 
grew grave. Will they make such haste at every call of 
duty, these gay youngsters ? on hand and “ ready ” at each 
noble muster ? Alas, no ! Even now some are getting an 
“ absence,” and some a “ late,” and of others the guns are 
not cleaned and the bell buttons will be tarnished. Ready ! 
it is a short word; but it means a man’s whole ceaseless 
purpose, self-denial, and care. How little those speeding 
figures on the green guessed that anybody on the old hill- 
side was praying for them ; but I believe the very skill and 
swiftness with which they darted along, gave stringency to 


317 


ON FORT PUT 

the prayer; such power for good, such forces for evil; 
such ease in doing the right thing, such recklessness, some- 
times, whether it was done or not. Through his glass, Mr. 
Wayne could study it all out. 

See that one now; a tall fellow, going over the ground 
at a rate to take common people's breath away. It is not 
altogether his fault that he has to run for it ; his best girl 
is on hand to-day, and this was a critical walk round 
Flirtation. Drum-calls were scarcely heard, and minutes 
flew unheeded. No carelessness of orders kept him back, 
and no contempt for them make him linger now. He does 
not mean to have even a late ; and so dashes on and wins. 
There is some jeering and clapping as the tall figure comes 
up; “ Two-forty” being his affectionate soubriquet; but 
all the same he is there, in ranks, with about ten seconds 
or less to spare. 

Another — Oh, yes, he set out to run ; anathematising the 
drum, the parade, and the regulations, and so soon stops ; 
runs again — and stops, with a sort of what’s-the-use air. 
“How much time?” he asks another, who is walking 
calmly on. 

“None at all.” 

Whereupon he quickens his steps ; but not so the second. 
The drum-beats come thicker and faster — that makes no 
odds. It is only a “ skin ” more or less, he says to himself ; 
and he’s sure to get it some other way, if not this ; and he 
has lost his Christmas leave already. So, while the rest fall 
in, and answer to roll call, he comes leisurely up to bar- 
racks, some minutes after the last man has shouted 
“ Here ! ” 

That is Cadet Clinker all through ; if he is going to fess, 
he’ll “ fess cold.” No one knows better than he how many 
demerits a man may get and still keep his place in the 
corps; or what delicate shades of meaning there are about 
“taking advantage of permits.” So he runs it here and 


318 


ON FORT PUT 


runs ifc there; goes off limits in all sorts of ways, places, 
and times, and gets help from all the friendly smugglers 
that infest the Post. He is one who entraps others, serving 
out his stores in many-coloured glasses or dainty cups, 
teaching the younger men strange oaths and unwholesome 
ways; making many a weak boy ashamed of his mother’s 
counsels and his father’s rules. 

“ II y a des heros en mat , comme en lien” 

You see he is such a pleasant fellow, — handsome, rich 
plausible; a great favourite with the ladies; and with a 
head about equally divided between folly and mathematics. 
Excellent gifts, all thrown away; and worst of all, thrown 
where they are stumbling blocks for other men. But he is 
a tremendous favourite all the same, with much more 
courage to do wrong than he has to do right. 

It is a thing to see Mr. Clinker come forth and walk 
about the Post, a day or two after one of his prize-fight ex- 
ploits. His mouth is swelled, his eyes bruised, his nose 
knocked out of all its fine proportions. But he steps jaunt- 
ily along, and the pretty girl at his side gazes up into the 
disfigured face as if Clinker were one of the first defenders 
of the country, newly risen from the shadows of old Fort 
Clinton. 

To-night Magnus watched him coming over the plain, 
and thought of Mr. Wayne’s words. No, he had never 
prayed for Clinker, much less tried to win him to better 
ways. And Cadet Kindred remarked to himself, quite 
privately, that he would rather “pull him out of the 
river ” than do that , every time. 

Mr. Wayne stayed over Sunday, and Magnus spent with 
him every minute that he could. The day was still and 
mild, so they could be out of doors the whole time; and I 
hardly know which of them enjoyed it most. 

“If surroundings made men, you cadets should be the 
noblest set on earth!” Mr. Wayne broke forth, as late in 


ON FORT PUT 


319 


the afternoon they walked up from Battery Knox, and 
paused in the little clearing where “ Dade and his Com- 
mand ” will be thought of for many a long day. “ Such 
wonders of beauty on every side, in mountains and sky and 
river; and whichever way you turn, such reminders of 
men who have ‘ fought a good fight ’ on the field of honour. 
Look at the old flag, and think how it has been shot at and 
insulted; defied and threatened; yet how splendidly it 
floats off to-day ! And the guns that lie sleeping beneath 
its shadow were captured by men who knew no such words 
as ‘hard’ or ‘easy.’ And the great iron links once 
stretched across the river tell of other chains triumphantly 
broken, in the face of fearful odds. On all sides you find 
written: ‘Faithful unto death/ Life purpose, life and 
death effort, life blood, have done it all ; the blood of men 
who ‘counted not their life dear unto themselves * when 
the country had need. And the one traitor among them — 
why, you will not have his name even in sight ! His tablet 
is a blank.” 

Slowly pacing up the walk again, Mr. Wayne went on, 
half to himself : 

“ Then Paul answered : ‘ What mean ye to weep and to 
break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, 
but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord 
Jesus/ Magnus” (with sudden change of tone) “when 
we parted two years ago at the Grand Central, I bade you 
make friends with the flag; now I tell you to open a re- 
cruiting office. I think you Christian men in the corps are 
making a grand mistake. 

“ If you cannot reach the nation, 

Gather in the men you know : 

Teach your friend the way to glory — 

Draw your comrade where you go.'* 

Cadet Kindred stopped short and faced him. 

“ Yes,” Mr. Wayne said, answering the look ; “ I know 


320 


ON FORT PUT 


/ 


all about it. But the Lord said : * He that gathereth not 
with me, scattereth/ And if you think it will be easier to 
take positive ground and begin positive work for Christ 
among a lot of strange officers at your first post, 1 think 
you are mistaken.” 


XLI 


UP CROWNEST 

Crowds of bees are giddy with clover, 

Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet : 

Crowds of larks in their matins hang over, 

Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet. 

—Jean Ingelow. 

I F Cadet Kindred rose up next morning with the very 
spirit of the Crusades astir in his heart ; ready to 
charge down upon the Saracens, lance in rest ; he 
said to himself as the day went on, that if Mr. Wayne had 
ever been a West Point cadet, that gentleman would know 
some things he did not know now. 

Here had Magnus been dreaming all night how he 
knocked a bumper out of Randolph’s hand ; how he had run 
Rig up to the first section in French; and how he had 
pitched Clinker back over the Commissary wall, just in 
time to prevent his being missed and “ skinned.” Also 
how he himself had been publicly thanked for these ex- 
ploits by the Academic Board in full session. But, alas! 
“ the stuff that dreams are made of ” fades in the morning 
sun, and from these pleasing nocturnal visions Mr. Kin- 
dred passed to a particularly tough recitation, with corre- 
sponding low marks, and thence to the stubbornest horse in 
the hall, that would not take the hurdles, and made him in- 
stead take the tan. And now, as he sat in his room, tired 
and growly, the mail brought him nothing but a desper- 
ately perfumed pink note. Magnus said “ Phew ! ” and 
moved to the window. 

“ Sent the whole shop, hasn’t she ? ” said Rig. “ That’s 
Mrs. Newcomb, a mile off.” 


321 


322 


UP CROWNEST 


“ Just listen, will you?” said Magnus. “ She wants to 
give a picnic on Crownest, and tells me to bring men 
enough for five girls ! How many apiece, do you suppose ? ” 

“ Unknown quantity; all depends on the girls. Who are 
they ? ” 

“ Doesn't tell. Miss Pretty, of course, for one ; she is 
a niece or something. Then there’s another girl, ‘ just from 
abroad/ — ‘ and the rest you know.’ Well, I’ll take the new 
girl, at a venture.” 

“ Then you’ll not have to think up any new grinds,” said 
Rig. “ Lucky man. And I’ll take Miss Pretty. If she’s 
heard all mine before, she won’t say so. So we are two.” 

“ And Clinker’s three ” 

“ What do you have him for ? ” said Rig. “ He’s in every 
single thing — when he isn’t on the area.” 

“ She wants him. By name,” said Magnus. “ Hopes 
‘ dear Mr. Clinker will be at leisure.’ ” 

“ That’s a neat way of hoping he’s out of Con.” said 
Rig. “ Say, didn’t she have a granddaughter or something, 
getting rubbed up in Paris? That’s the new girl.” 

“ Granddaughter ! ” said Magnus. “ Just let Mrs. New- 
comb hear you say that ! But I’ll take the rubbed-up girl, 
whoever she is, my risk. And Miss Frisk will take you. 
She’s sure to be along.” 

“ Sure to get Clinker, if she is,” said Rig. “ Wonder if 
the little Busy Bee will come? Kin, you’re hard on that 
girl.” 

“ Don’t want me to be soft, do you ? ” said Magnus, with 
the drum cutting him short. 

Of course the names of the party were all out before 
Saturday ; the girls could not talk of much else. And as for 
cadets, each girl might have had five, had the limits of the 
lunch basket agreed thereto. The day was perfect, the 
dresses faultless, and Mr. Clinker happily “ at leisure,” for 
once. 


UP CROWNEST 323 

Not everybody knows— but few try to know-how witch- 
ing that climb up Crownest is, if you take the old “ Cadet 
Trail.” The way goes along for a while at the level of the 
plain, but then betakes itself to the air; presently mount- 
ing up and up with a straight pitch before you. There 
come turns, of course, winding round some unscaleable 
rock; and gentler going over a small knoll or two, and 
quite a level stretch around the shoulder, in the “ Nest.” 
But very often it is just a steep ladder of a path, to be 
climbed as best you can. A wilderness of grey rock and 
green woods; feathery hemlocks, sombre oaks, ash trees, 
maples, and hickory. Below these, dogwood and other 
“ cornels,” with ironwood, shad blossom, witch hazel, and 
laurel. Lower still ferns — unlike those in the valley; with 
orchids of a new type, yellow gerardias, purple gerardias, 
partridge berry, and wintergreen. Then the brown leaves 
of last year, half covering the mosses, and thickly sprinkled 
in turn with the red and yellow of to-day. 

The rarest scents are in the air: the balsam breath of 
the sweet brier, and from the new-fallen and falling 
leaves that special fragrance of the autumn woods — sweet, 
racy, heart-piercing, a waft from days gone by and with- 
ered, their work all done. 

Many of the birds have already gone South; but robins 
are here, and chickadees, and the cry of the gulls is in per- 
fect keeping with the cool air and the white caps on the 
river. 

Up through this wilderness of wild and fragrant things, 
the little party went joyously along; or if not quite that on 
Mrs. Newcomb’s part, yet it is painful to relate that her 
trips and stumbles did but heighten the fun for all the rest. 
In many a place it took two men to get her on at all. Mag- 
nus would leave his pretty companion safe on some high 
standpoint, jump down again himself, and with Crane on 
the other side carefully engineer Mrs. Newcomb to a place 


324 


UP CROWNEST 


beside her niece. It might also be noticed that Mr. Clinker 
and his convoy generally lagged behind at such crises, or 
got into some tangle themselves, from which they came out, 
safe and suddenly, as soon as Mrs. Newcomb was disposed 
of. And by and by Cadet Kindred, being quite alive to the 
situation, quickened his pace, and passed on too far ahead 
for any new service to be required of him. 

On and up the two flitted along — like grey and red 
squirrels, averred the toiling Mrs. Newcomb; but even for 
themselves there were difficulties. 

Here, for instance, stands an immense rock that stops 
the way. And as Miss Lane measures it with her eyes, 
behold! there is Magnus on top of it, reaching down his 
hand to her. 

“ Do you expect me to climb up there ? ” Cadet gives a 
little gesture of the head which Dickens would have said 
meant, “He rather thought so.” 

“ How did you get there yourself ? ” 

“ Came.” 

“ Are there any snakes up there ? ” 

“ Not so many as where you are.” 

Miss Lane seized his hand, made unheard-of efforts, and 
mounted the rock, then looked down complacently. 

“ Why, how slow you are ! ” she cried. “ Just jump up 
as I did. Oh — what was that — a rattle ? ” 

“ Yes ; Rig’s tin pail against his buttons,” said Magnus, 
laughing. 

“ I wish he’d give it to someone who does not wear but- 
tons. Must people always carry tin pails when they go out 
to enjoy themselves?” 

“You’ll like it at the top. And we’re almost there 
now.” 

Trees grew shorter and scarcer, rocks stood up in bolder 
self-assertion; and, with a last steep climb, the grey and 
the red came out upon the mountain’s lovely head, and, 


UP CROWNEST 325 

after a shout of victory, sat down to look and breathe. Oh', 
how wonderfully fair earth is from the top of Crownest! 

On the west, beyond the dipping hillside, the broad 
valley lay in seven shades of green — slope beyond slope — 
till it touched the soft horizon blue. To the north, the 
far-off Catskill range rose, shoulder to shoulder, from the 
more le\el land, a great lonely pile. Then on the south, 
beyond the locked-in Highlands, Tappan lay shimmering 
in the sunlight, a blue inland sea; while just across the 
river on its eastern shore, the bluff ends of the mountains 
fell apart, and you could see the long valleys between; the 
grey-green ridges like grim ribs, running eastward towards 
the Connecticut line. The river itself was decked with 
various craft ; over all there wandered a faint, fitful north 
breeze. 

From their vantage ground Magnus and his companion 
watched the toiling party below, for whom neither earth nor 
6ky had any special charm just then. Privately Mrs. New- 
comb was assuring herself, that the next time she gave a 
picnic it would not be on the top of Crownest; the girls 
might say what they liked. And Mr. Clinker was inwardly 
chafing against the good lady’s value in avoirdupois. 
(Quite literally, sometimes, when on a bad bit of road she 
surged up against him.) Rig was laughing to himself at 
them, at Magnus, and at things generally ; and aloud at the 
sallies of Miss Freak; while the last couples of the party 
fumed a little at the slow progress and the narrow trail. 
How came those + wo to get ahead ? There they sat, in tri- 
umphant ease, the grey and the red. 

“ You men are a very peculiar set,” Miss Lane said sud- 
denly. 

“ I am sure you ladies are.” 

“ Oh, I am not talking of the whole human race,” said 
Miss Lane : “ it is cadets that are so odd, so unlike other 
people.” 


326 


UP CROWNEST 

“ That is good,” said Magnus. “ One would not wish to 
be like everybody else.” 

“ How you chop one up. I mean other students. Do you 
try to be unlike all other cadets ? ” 

Magnus shook his head. 

“ I get the credit sometimes, without trying.” 

“ And I can see you deserve it, too,” said the girl. “ You 
would have tugged Aunt Newcomb all the way up here, 
if you hadn’t thought Mr. Clinker meant you should.” 

Magnus laughed. 

“Do you call that being odd?” he said. “It is just 
even.” 

“ And then, instead of standing off like a shirk, you did 
the polite thing and ran away. Do you always run from 
difficulties, Mr. Kindred ? ” 

“ Bad for me if I do,” said Magnus. “ A foe in the rear 
is worth two in front.” 

“ Then you generally fight ? ” 

“ People, or things ? ” 

“ Both.” 

“ Well, as to the people,” Magnus answered, “ I have not 
been much tried. It depends on yourself somewhat, I 
fancy ; and I have never been challenged since I entered the 
Corps.” 

“ What would you do if you were ? ” 

“ What I would, is one thing,” Magnus said rather slowly. 
“ By my good leave, I should say no.” 

“ Would you — and be pointed at ? ” 

“ You’re sure to be pointed at for something,” Magnus 
answered lightly. “It’s a choice of cases.” 

“ But I cannot imagine a man like you saying no ! ” said 
the girl eagerly. “Not fight, if you were challenged? You 
are brave, I know.” 

“ How do you know ? If I am, I shall never fight for 
fear of being pointed at.” 


UP CROWNEST 327 

“ But why ? ” Miss Lane repeated, her bright eyes search- 
ing his face. “ Tell me quick, Mr. Kindred. They’ll all 
be up here directly, and I cannot possibly wait to know till 
to-morrow. Why wouldn’t you fight ? I believe you could 
whip any man in the Corps.” 

“ There is one rule,” said Magnus, meeting her look, 
tc which I have sworn to keep. It is an old rule, and a 
short one, but it covers a great deal of ground. ‘ Whatso- 
ever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord 
Jesus.’ I could not so endorse my acceptance of a chal- 
lenge.” 

The girl looked at him with wide open eyes. 

“ You will find those old rules of yours terribly in the 
way, sometimes,” she said. 

“ Sure sign that I am off the track, then,” said her com- 
panion, smiling. “ Fences don’t matter when you mean to 
keep the road. But doubtless most good things have their 
inconvenient side.” 

“ Aunt Newcomb, for instance,” said Miss Lane, chang- 
ing her tone. “ I think I should count both sides ‘ incon- 
venient,’ if I had to pull her up the hill. By the way, Mr. 
Kindred, why didn’t your rule oblige you to take the brunt 
of the burden to the last ? ” 

“ It might in some cases,” said Magnus; “not in this. 
Clinker had to earn his lunch, and there was no other way 
for him to do it.” 

“Well, there they come,” said Miss Lane, rising up, 
“ to cut short our talk ; I am quite sorry. You interest me, 
Mr. Kindred; cadets with ‘ views’ are a novelty. But I 
rather wish you would fight ! ” 

“ I dare say I could get a broken head in the riding hall 
some day, when I’m on Dangerfield — would that do?” 
said Magnus, laughing back at her as he went forward 
to give Mrs. Newcomb a hand, which was gratefully 
taken. 


328 


UP CROWNEST 

“ Oh, Mr. Kindred— thank you ! This has been certainly 
— the most awfully grand — walk I ever experienced.” 

“ It isn’t a walk at all, Aunt Newcomb,” said Miss Freak. 
“ It’s a clamber, and a climb, and the roughest sort of time. 
I’ve ruined my best pair of shoes, and not another this side 
of New York. And five walks on hand for to-morrow.” 

“ Get an order on the Captain from the Com.,” Rig sug- 
gested. 

“ Fit warranted,” said Miss Freak, putting her little 
foot out into the sunlight. “ I wonder you don’t offer me 
your own, Mr. McLean, at once, and save what is left of 
mine.” 

“You wouldn’t need but one,” said Rig; “and regu- 
lations require me to have two.” 

“ Much you care for regulations, up here.” 

“Freaky, my dear,” said her aunt, “I wish you girls 
would unpack the baskets, and heat up our coffee. I am 
just worn out.” 

“ But you must have a fire,” said Miss Lane. “ Who’ll 
make it?” 

Then followed the prettiest, liveliest bustle. The hill- 
top all around them was covered with a low growth of 
huckleberry bushes; and here and there, scattered about 
among this, were twigs and sticks and chips, dry and 
bleached and just ready to burn. 

Choosing with some care a rock whence the fire could 
not easily spread, a gay little blaze was soon kindled, and 
the cold coffee put under — or over — its care. Then busy 
hands unpacked or uncovered the baskets. Sandwiches were 
in one, cake in another, late peaches filled a third. Miss 
Freak had a box of Huyler’s somewhat luscious sweets ; Miss 
Newcomb an assortment of peanut brittle, cocoanut cakes, 
and sweet chocolate; and the wind kept still, and did not 
blow even a napkin away. 

But the last time Magnus Kindred ihad been at a picnic, 


UP CROWNEST 329 

it was in the far-away home region, and with just the home 
group around him; and now it all came back to him in a 
moment ; with the tones of his mother’s voice as she asked 
for a blessing on their day’s pleasure. And I suppose it was 
this that made him pause unconsciously, after he had taken 
his stand by the fire to pour out the steaming coffee. 

“ What is it ? ” said Mrs. Newcomb, in her plaintive 
voice. “ Not hot yet ? ” 

Then Miss Freak laughed out, and Miss Newcomb looked 
at her, and Miss Lane watched this cadet who had “ views.” 

“ Oh, aunty ! ” cried Miss Freak, “ don’t you know he’s 
one of the too-good-f or-this-earth boys ? Why, coffee out of 
an ice box would scald his throat, if somebody didn’t pray 
over it first. He’s waiting for you to say grace, ma’am.” 

“ Waiting for me ! ” Mrs. Newcomb repeated helplessly. 
“ But your uncle always does it, you know, Freaky.” 

“ Well, he isn’t here,” said Miss Freak. “ Come, aunty ! ” 

The girls were choking themselves with their pocket- 
handkerchiefs; the cadets, better used to endurance, kept 
their gravity intact. Charlemagne Kindred stood abso- 
lutely still; but his thoughts went flying back to the 
honeysuckle-wreathed porch, and Cherry, and how she had 
waited for him. Blessings on her ! she never came near him 
but to do him good. 

“ Why doesn’t the man pour out his coffee? ” Miss Lane 
was saying impatiently to herself. 

“ Mr. Kindred,” said Mrs. Newcomb in a sort of appeal 
— “ girls, be quiet — I am ashamed of you. Mr. Kindred, 
will you be kind enough to say grace yourself ? Of course, 
it is quite proper to have it done, and a man can do it so 
much better.” 

“ Not this man ! ” So shot the feeling through Cadet 
Charlemagne. This man, who had never even come near 
such a thing in public. But quick as Nehemiah got his 
orders, so on the instant the young cadet had his. Was he 


330 UP CROWNEST 

not pledged to shun no point of witness-bearing? And, 
with again one swift thought of Cherry, Magnus obeyed; 
standing there by the little fire, while good Mrs. Newcomb 
bowed her head, and the others watched him from their 
mossy seats. And the words were Cherry’s own, as she had 
said them on that well-remembered morning. 

“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful 
also in much.” This was a very small thing to do, but I 
think nobody ever guessed what it cost Magnus Kindred. 
And as little did he imagine, how that small bit of open 
confession broadened out and took its full proportions to 
other eyes. There was something in the serious face, some- 
thing in the reverent voice, something about it all, indeed, 
that everybody felt. As Mr. Kindred came forward now 
with Mrs. Newcomb’s coffee cup, Clinker looked at him 
curiously, McLean with a sort of wondering veneration, 
while Miss Lane said to herself : “ Fight ! Of course he 
could ! ” But then Magnus threw himself into the fun, 
and in two minutes had fanned the frolic to a point that 
quite outshone the fire. 

“ So nice to have a private chaplain along,” Miss Freak 
had said airily, trying to throw off her thoughts. But the 
other girls frowned down all attempts at fun in that direc- 
tion, and harmony reigned. Or, to speak more correctly, 
the lunch baskets reigned in a very harmonious atmos- 
phere. 

Sitting about on moss or stones, after the good cheer had 
vanished, the cadets got off so many “grinds” that poor 
Mrs. Newcomo declared she should have no strength left 
to help her down the hill. Then they sang songs, and gave 
out conundrums. The girls made chains of the pine 
needles, and the men in grey put them on, and declared 
them emblematic and imperishable. 

On her part, Miss Lane went on with her study of Mag- 
nus Kindred, watching him keenly. She noticed that 


331 


UP CROWNEST 

though he took the frail green links from her hands, putting 
them round his cap, twining them about his arm, he said no 
word of their being “ fetters ” — called them garlands, in- 
stead. She felt that in all the light play, the cavalier-like 
deference, there was no sham devotion, no hint of deeper 
things. Yet he wore his class ring. And she knew she 
was pretty, and felt certain she was well dressed. It 
piqued her ; she would have liked to see those green chains 
press hard, with a permanent sensation. And then, when 
she went off to look at some side view which Mr. Clinker 
recommended, what did Mr. Kindred do but seat himself 
by Mrs. Newcomb and talk to her ! It was extremely try- 
ing. 

I think, to me, the way down Crownest is more difficult 
than the way up; taking hold perhaps upon a set of less- 
used muscles ; but the party all came safe and sound to the 
lower level and easier going of the plain. 

“ Now you must be sure and come to us at Christmas,” 
Mrs. Newcomb was saying, as they parted. “ We shall ex- 
pect you all.” 

“Well, I can’t come, sorry to say,” Mr. Clinker an- 
swered with a laugh. “ I’ve got a previous with the Com. 
Awfully hard lines for me,— .but it’s just my luck.” 


XLII 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 


Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes, they were men that stood 


—James Russell Lowell. 


alone. 



OLD weather came early. Mrs. Newcomb’s picnic 


was the last of the season, and most of the human 


birds of passage grew chilly, and took their 


bright plumage back to city streets. A few visitors lingered 
on ; people with no children to put to school, or with some 
son or brother in the Corps. 

Only the steadfast old hills flung out their hardy colours 
— and flung them off; decking themselves with an occa- 
sional white cap instead. The blue river rolled by in deep 
foamy wrinkles; the distant Catskills had donned their 
snow. 

No parades now, but noisy drills, with light battery, 
siege battery, and sea-coast guns, making the hills roar out 
in countless echoes. Only Battery Knox lay quiet, un- 
moved in all the commotion, keeping silent watch near the 
white shaft of “ Dade and his Command.” While far away 
beyond the hubbub, a small army of white and grey and 
brown stones told of other soldiers, who had fought their 
last battle, and answered to the last command. Very little 
told there, indeed, but of the soldier ; the man almost left 
out. But on one old, old stone are words to make one’s 
heart leap up for joy : 

“ He that doeth the will of God, abideth forever.” 

October ran its bright course, and the shorter, darker 
days of November came softly in, but very fair, even yet. 
The hills set forth their rocky heights and fastnesses. 


332 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 


333 


stripped now of the softening leaves, and still the cold grey 
of the stone was warmed and clouded with the wilderness 
of brown tree stems. And every here and there rose up a 
tall hemlock or cedar or pine, in its dark, dauntless green, 
while not a few red oaks still sported the tatters of their 
autumn flags. Along the river on the lower ground, black 
alder bushes showed a wealth of “ winter berries,” beauti- 
ful as coral beads, and a close match in colour. 

Drills ceased, and dress parade began; and in the dusky 
time between gunfire and supper the men had chance for a 
good constitutional upon the well-swept sidewalk of the 
officers’ row. Wrapped in long grey fearnaughts, with 
steady, swinging step, they went up and down, in ones and 
twos and threes, almost like an open procession; talking, 
talking, and discussing. Now the last blunder of the 
“ Com.,” now the latest whim of the “ Supe ” ; then the 
marks of the day. Here, consigning all tactical officers to 
the prompt dealing of a drumhead court-martial, and here 
busy with the charms of some fair new girl. Oftenest of 
all, perhaps, dwelling on Graduation, Furlough, and First- 
class camp. 

But you never saw them walk arm in arm, like other 
students, — this would strike any stranger. Close together, 
but both hands free. Perhaps the regulation salute, with 
its frequent, instant, and exact demands, may be partly 
the cause of this. 

A fellow once hastening over to the hop with a girl on 
one arm, and her shoes and fan laying claim to the other, 
passed a certain dignitary with only <a bow of the head, 
and was of course reported. 

Going next day to explain and get the report off, he was 
told: 

“ Drop the girl ! Drop the shoes ! Salute, salute ! ” 

Another feature of West Point life which I think 
would strike unwonted eyes, is the universal opening of 


334 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 

front doors at four o’clock. Up to that time, after the mid- 
day refection of whatever name, West Point on the plain 
might be a city asleep, with slow pacing sentries guarding 
its slumbers. But when the sweet four o’clock bugle sounds 
out, waking the echoes and the antagonistic dogs, the 
houses wake up too. Bonnets go on, gloves slide into place, 
and the fair wearers come forth with a delightful sense of 
expecting or being expected (for both things are in place), 
and the thinnest veil of unconcern to hide it all. It is a 
very pretty scene. 

Officers and professors come hastening back from the 
section room, gay turnouts wheel hither and thither, and 
the cadets are presently out in force. For drill, for parade, 
for walks, according to the time of year and the state of 
the weather. Football was not yet the rage, in Magnus 
Kindred’s time, nor bicycles; and so every man you met 
was practising the noble art of walking, or showing how 
splendidly West Point can ride. 

As November speeded away, Christmas leave began to 
rise up in the distance, and to claim many thoughts. Men 
who had lost it were down on their “luck” (the cadet 
spelling for carelessness), men who had won it debated in 
■what way the few dear hours of freedom should be spent ; 
and many a fellow from some far-down or far-off corner 
of the land stood pledged to go with his happier friend 
whose home was nearer by. 

In all these joys, as usual, the poor fourth classmen had 
no share. They walked, indeed, like the rest; one must 
do something; but they talked gloomy things. No Christ- 
mas leave for them — and not much of anything else but 
hard work. They were not supposed to need anything else. 
No damsels on the sidewalk proffered them sugar plums, 
very few people even knew them by sight. 

I will do Magnus Kindred the justice to say that the 
keen memory of some of his own early days at the Post 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 335 

made him a little bit thoughtful of these forlorn young 
strangers. It was no great credit to him, perhaps, if he 
now and then passed on to fourth class hands a box of Miss 
Flirt’s best candy, but he did better than that. He gave 
words of encouragement and counsel, cheered up the faint 
hearts, and would smile and speak to a pleb on the side- 
walk, just as if he himself had not been first sergeant, and 
a prime favourite with the ladies. 

Some people will say he could have had no time to look 
after anyone but himself, but you never know how much 
you have, till you divide it up with needy people. And I 
doubt if helping takes more time than hazing. It is rather 
a question of which word you will say, what look you will 
give. And there had come to Cadet Kindred the whole- 
some perception that he could be a power for good or for 
evil, with all these younger boys. Consciously or uncon- 
sciously, they were watching /the upper classmen, and tak- 
ing tone from them. 

“What is in the way of your living just as earnest 
Christian lives here, as at home ? ” he had said one day to 
some plebs who were gradually sliding back from all their 
good home habits. And one answered : 

“ Because we are so far from home, sir, and can’t go to 
church so often, and can’t keep Sunday as we have been 
taught.” 

But another said boldly: 

“ Because the first classmen are so different in camp 
from what they are in prayer meeting.” 

And it set Magnus to thinking. His own pleb days were 
not so long past that he could forget how he used to watch 
Mr. Upright, to see what all his brave words in the prayer 
meeting came to in the week; finding the first captain’s 
straight everyday walk a constant help. And just such 
service he himself was called upon to render to these new 


men. 


336 CHRISTMAS LEAVE 

It had been a doubt with Mr. Kindred, as the holidays 
drew on, whether after all he would use his Christmas leave. 
He had it, easy enough, but what should he do with it? 
Home was too far away to be even thought of, and short of 
home, what was there he cared for ? Magnus rather thought 
he would stay at the Post. 

However, as the time drew near, and Mrs. Newcomb re- 
newed her invitation, and Mrs. Beguile sent up hers, Mag- 
nus yielded to the prospective charms of the Metropolitan 
Museum, Central Park, and New York harbour; and 
joined the gay party that were going to town. Five days’ 
escape from the reveille gun was, after all, worth some- 
thing. 

Busy, gay days ! In their quiet “ cit ” dress the cadets 
roamed about all day, and then at night, in correct cadet 
costume, went to dinner here and supper there, until Mag- 
nus thought he must have been presented to all the pretty 
girls in town. Rooms were full of floating sashes and fall- 
ing lace and skirts that could “ stand alone ” : and the men 
in grey moved about among the airiest kind of clouds and 
billows; a maze of bewildering scents and sounds and 
visions, with old friends and new on every hand. 

The last night of all there was a large gathering of 
young people at the house of Mrs. Beguile, and of course 
the West Pointers were petted and wondered over to their 
hearts’ content. In fact Magnus had more of it than he 
wanted; he grew tired of being asked for bell buttons, and 
telling how often he had his hair cut. McLean enjoyed it, 
and Randolph could never have too many girls around, 
even if the fair creatures had to stand on tiptoe and peep 
over each other’s shoulders. But Mr. Kindred was in a very 
critical mood, thinking of Cherry ; and found himself com- 
paring necks and shoulders on every hand. He was saying 
stringent things to himself anent one of the prodigal own- 
ers, when Mrs. Beguile touched him on the arm. 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 


337 


“ I do not wonder yon are lost in admiration,” she said, 
following his eyes, which were just then fixed on the young- 
est Miss Fashion; an extremely handsome young lady, too 
much of whose dress seemed to have slid down to the floor 
in a mass of curling frills and furbelows. 

“ Like Venus rising from the sea, is she not, Mr. Kin- 
dred, with her white foamy draperies?” 

Magnus considered this rendering. 

“ Why did Venus rise from the sea? ” he asked abruptly. 
But now Mrs. Beguile looked at him. 

“ Why ? ” she repeated. “ Dear me ! how should I know ? 
Fm not the least bit classical. Because she liked to, I 
suppose. But my dear Mr. Kindred, as our great poet 
has beautifully remarked, ‘Life is a business, not good 
cheer/ Will you come with me and make yourself 
useful ? ” 

“ What an opening — to a man who has been totally use- 
less for the last four days ! ” Magnus answered, as he fol- 
lowed his hostess to the supper room. “ But if your poet 
had seen that table, Mrs. Beguile, he would have written 
down life to be good cheer and not business — couldn’t help 
it, you know; it would have confused his mind to that 
extent.” 

Mrs. Beguile took this as a great joke, and went about 
repeating it. 

“ Cadets have such pretty ways of saying things,” she 
remarked. “ Oh, Busy, here’s Mr. Kindred. You used to 
see him at West Point, you know, and he’s just as nice as 
ever.” 

Poor little Miss Bee! Did she need to be assured of 
that ? But she bore herself gallantly, was just glad enough 
and not too glad to see him, gave one thought to her dress — 
so unfashionably high and plain — and never found out 
with what deep approval Cadet Kindred noticed its modest 
cut and simple trimmings. 


338 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 

" Cherry might ask her to be one of the bridesmaids/’ 
he thought. Poor little Mabel ! 

"Say, Kin,” Rig confided to him as he went by with 
Miss Flirt’s empty plate; "just two things not here, cast- 
iron pancakes, and ‘ Sammy.’ ” 

" And the first captain,” added Randolph, " yelling out 
( Battalion, rise ! ’ before we’re half through.” 

" What do you think of this, for Commissary beef ? ” 
quoth Twinkle, devouring a sandwich in blissful ignorance 
of its component parts. 

" Mr. Kindred ! Mr. Kindred ! ” called out Miss Freak 
from a window seat behind him ; " do please get me a glass 
of punch. I’m just dying with thirst.” 

Magnus stepped over to a side table and brought the 
young lady a glass of sparkling cold water. Miss Freak 
promptly handed it back. 

" What did you bring that for ? ” she asked. " I didn’t 
say water, man alive ! ” 

" Best thing I know, when you are thirsty,” said Magnus. 
" Try it once.” 

" Try it once,” the girl repeated mockingly. " Do you 
suppose I never have ? ” 

" She wants punch,” remarked Miss Saucy. 

" She thinks she does.” 

" She knows she does,” said Miss Freak, with a stamp of 
her little foot. " You’d better believe she knows what she 
wants.” 

" I never heard that ladies could not be mistaken, did 
you?” said Magnus provokingly. 

" Mrs. Beguile ! Mrs. Beguile ! ” called out Miss Freak, 
" here’s one of your guests very rude to me ! ” 

" What is it, Freaky? ” asked the good lady, bustling up. 
"Rude to you? 0'h, I guess not. Mr. Kindred will take 
care of you.” 

" If she will let me.” 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 339 

“ Why, he’s the very man ! ” said Miss Freak. “ I want 
some punch, and he’ll not get it for me.” 

“ Not get it for you, dear ? ” 

“ Doused me with cold water,” said the young lady, pout- 
ing. 

“ Doused you ! ” Mrs. Beguile looked at the pink dra- 
peries, which gave no sign of such heroic treatment ; then 
she turned to Magnus. 

“ I am trying to take care of her, Mrs. Beguile,” Magnus 
said. 

The good lady looked at him, — the clean, clear face, the 
bright eyes; looked across to the great punch bowl, where 
the ladling and quaffing went ceaselessly on, her own boys 
among the crowd, and a shadow fell on her placid face. 

“Do you drink nothing but water yourself, Mr. Kin- 
dred?” 

“ Nothing, ma’am.” 

“ Not even punch ? ” 

“No, ma’am.” 

Another look went across the room, and then Mrs. Be- 
guile said with a half sigh : 

“ Freaky, if I were you, I’d let him take care of me as he 
thinks best; and of, himself, too. You are a brave man, 
Mr. Kindred.” 

“ ‘ The Lord cover his head in the day of battle,’ ” said 
a low voice behind Magnus. He turned quickly, but per- 
haps the speaker had turned too, for he saw no sign. 

“ I thought you wouldn’t fight ? ” said Miss Lane, laugh- 
ing up at him. 

As for Miss Freak, she pouted, and made believe cry; 
and Randolph darted over to the great bowl, coming back 
with a glass of punch in each hand, one for his own com- 
panion and one for Miss Freak. 

“ Such airs ! ” commented portly Mrs. Chose, sailing by. 
“ Setting himself up above the rest of the world. Just 


340 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 

the way with those West Pointers. I told you so, Miranda ; 
more strut than sense. Ell never take you to West Point 
again.” 

" Oh, yes you will,” said Miss Miranda cheerfully, " be- 
cause Fm going. Give me the strut, every time.” 

“ I admire your courage, Mr. Kindred,” said another 
lady; "it is quite touching in so young a man. But I 
am always sorry to see a fine thing wasted, thrown away: 
misdirected zeal, you know, for instance. You cannot think 
for a moment that one of those small glasses of punch could 
affect a person in any way ? ” 

" It might make him want another, Mrs. Bright,” Mag- 
nus answered respectfully. She was a very pleasant, 
sensible woman, and had always been very kind to him. 

"Want another? Well, let him have it. Two such' 
glasses of simple punch? Why, the head that wouldn’t 
stand that isn’t worth the purchase.” 

" Mine would be worth more before than it would after,” 
Magnus answered gaily, but not without a twinge. 

" Oh, are you particularly susceptible ? ” 

" Not that I know of, ma’am.” 

“ Of course, if you are,” the lady went on, " you do right 
to let it alone. But you might grant others the pleasure. 
Really, I think it is rather narrow of you, Mr. Kindred, 
and so I don’t like it. You know you have always been 
my model cadet.” 

Magnus bowed. 

"Fences have a narrow look, I do suppose,” he said, 
" but they are good things, in spots. And I’d rather dis- 
appoint you so, than in some other ways, Mrs. Bright.” 

The two stood silent for a moment, looking off towards 
the punch bowl. Men came and went, and went and came, 
with other people’s glasses ; and then stood still and emptied 
their own. Young men, old men, with women on the out- 
skirts. 


341 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 

“ And you will not get me a glass ? ” said Mrs. Bright, 
looking up at her favourite. 

“ No, ma’am, if you please,” Magnus said* with very 
winning deference. “ You will not ask me, Mrs. Bright? ” 

“You cannot think there is any risk for me? Would 
it be against West Point regulations? But they are not 
in force here.” 

“No; although West Point honour is mine to guard, 
wherever I am,” answered Magnus. “But I have said it 
to myself, that I will never take nor give the stuff in any 
form. For a regulation older than West Point, Mrs. 
Bright.” 

“What, then?” 

“ 4 If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat 
while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to 
offend.’ ” 

Very hilarious voices from the region of the punch bowl 
emphasised the clear, brave words. 

“I don’t like it,” said the lady frankly. “You upset 
all my ideas.” 

“ But why do you keep him mewed up here in the cor- 
ner, Mrs. Bright ? ” said Miss Saucy, who had been listening 
intently behind backs. “ I don’t believe he’s had one scrap 
of supper. Have a cup of tea; do, Magnus. You can’t 
live upon air, man, even in the plural. Here’s some I 
brought you myself. Taste it and see how good it is. You 
like lemon, I know.” 

Magnus took the cup from the glittering fingers, ex- 
pressed his thanks, and tasted as he was bid. Then in- 
stantly turned and set the full cup down on the table, 
coming back to his place without a word. 

A great burst of laughter greeted him. Miss Saucy 
fairly sank down into a chair, and Miss Newcomb and a 
half dozen more clapped hands with delight. 

“What is all this?” said Mrs. Bright sternly; the 


342 


CHRISTMAS LEAVE 

screaming style was not to her taste, and she had caught 
the sudden flush and gleam on the face of Charlemagne 
Kindred. “ What is all this, girls ? ” 

“ Rum/* Magnus said briefly. 

“ It wasn’t ! ” cried Miss Saucy; “it was good, honest 
tea, Mrs. Bright.” 

“With dishonest seasoning.” 

“That was a very unladylike trick,” said Mrs. Bright. 
“ Girls, I am extremely astonished at you. Rum in tea ? 
Why, I never heard of such a thing.” 

“ Oh, aunty,” cried Miss Freak, with her hands on her 
sides, “ there’s lots of things you never heard of ! ” 

“Well, I am glad I have heard of you!” said Mrs. 
Bright, giving Magnus a good grip of her hand. “ Glad 
I have heard you, too. And now I must go.” 

Miss Lane, who had been a keen looker-on at all this, 
came up a little closer. 

“How does it work?” she said softly. “You know I 
warned you those old rules would get in your way.” 

“ They have not yet,” said Magnus. “ I am all standing, 
thank you.” 

“ I see ; straighter than ever. It’s a great thing to have 
‘ views,”’ said Miss Lane, with a laugh. “When they 
materialise like yours.” 

For a few minutes the air was full of “ See you at the 
New Year’s Hop ” — “ Take you to the Hundredth Night ” 
— “ Come for first-class camp.” Then the company sep- 
arated, the lights went out, and the punch bowl was left to 
its own reflections. 


XLIII 

THE HUNDREDTH NIGHT 


Oh, who will leave West Point retreats, 

A hundred days to come ? 

Oh, who will walk the city streets, 

A hundred days to come ? 

Oh, who will wear their suits of cits, 

Oh, who will boast of spooning fits, 

Who’ll lose their cents but not their wits, 

A hundred days to come ? 

— West Point Howitzer of '93. 

T HE January examination that year came on and 
went off, bearing with it but few wrecks. One 
or two hard-working men who were cut out for 
lines of life where mathematics counted less; with two or 
three careless ones who coveted lines where there was no 
work at all. And now dn everybody’s mind the cold days 
and hard studies ranged themselves in a shortening vista, 
with June at the end. June ! the short word for first-class 
camp, furlough, yearling camp, and graduation. While to 
Charlemagne Kindred and many another, was added in 
the thought of friends at home who had promised to grace 
June with their presence. Some men talked about this, 
but he never did — at least, not in full. To his roommate 
he did sometimes speak of his mother and her coming, 
but not of his sisters; never of Cherry. No one knew 
that she existed, except the men who had been there, and 
they had been very much thrown off to the other girls even 
then. And as Magnus was extremely popular at West 
Point, there were always girls at hand to suggest unlimited 
chaffing, without crossing the continent to find occasion 
343 


344 


HUNDREDTH NIGHT 


thereto. Letters came and went in troops, of course, but 
so they did for other men. Three girls he never heard of 
wrote to Magnus, desiring a correspondence, and he turned 
the letters over to Mr. Trent, who had quite a lively time. 
Thus, one way and another, the weeks swung on, and 
Washington’s birthday was close at hand. 

“ One hundred days to J une ! ” 

So rang out the joyful tidings in the mess hall one snowy 
winter morning, making the old place on a sudden all sum- 
mer with warm exultation. It was almost beyond belief; 
and the fourth classman detailed to announce the date 
might have been chaired and borne back to barracks on 
the shoulders of the crowd, had such doings been allowed 
at the Academy. As things were, however, all that could 
be given him was the further privilege of announcing next 
morning, that the days had dwindled to ninety nine. 

But just in here came the Hundredth Night extrava- 
ganza; like Hallowe’en, or the Carnival, or any other 
special occasion when wits run wild. 

If I should try to give you the details of any one particu- 
lar Hundredth Night frolic, I might either make anomalous 
blunders or else mark out and specify some one special year, 
and so date my story. Let me rather, then, give a chance 
medley from many celebrations, of things that were done — 
or might have been done — only vouching for the general 
truth of its details. 

Of course Magnus Kindred was in the forefront of every- 
thing, with his untiring energy, fine voice, and ready wit; 
and no beavers could have worked harder over a winter 
house, than these men over one winter frolic. Plans, 
dresses, scenery, jokes, and poems, with here and there an 
elaborate mock-machine ; what patience, what perseverance, 
what endless fertile wits, they did display. Every Sat- 
urday afternoon, every minute of release from quarters, 
went into the work. Ladies were called upon for hints 


HUNDREDTH NIGHT 345 

and materials; good-natured officers gave their accoutre- 
ments and their advice. The very professors lent their 
coats to the wicked boys who were preparing to “ skin ” 
their benefactors, in the only way possible to cadets. 

For the men in grey may not argue, remonstrate, or peti- 
tion; may not even ask why. “ Theirs but to do and die,” 
as they themselves would put it; until the Colour Line 
comes round, or the Hundredth Night. Then, twice in the 
year, they are allowed to state their opinions, grievances, 
and desires, though still within certain limits. Woe be to 
the man who ventures to disagree with his instructor in the 
section room; but at the Hundredth night he may make 
what fun of him he can — within limits. 

Of late, however, the censorship over these frolics has 
been so strict that they are shorn of their old glory. The 
wild garden effect has changed into more “ correct ” 
growths, well trained and trimmed : less distinctive, less 
individual. Wits will not play without space to play in. 
But in those times of which I write, it seems to have been 
thought that steam pent up was more dangerous than the 
same blown off; and that the quips and jibes and flings, 
so dear to cadet hearts, were most innocuous when well 
shaken up and aired twice a year. 

Cadet rebukes rarely miss the mark through being 
wrapped in too much cotton. But if a few cuts and 
scratches follow they are not deep, and the surrounding 
fun half heals them. I defy anybody to look grave, 
when that grey house “ comes down ” in a roar of merri- 
ment. 

Of course, many of the jokes are so local and technical 
that a stranger would be puzzled. West Point affairs, per- 
sonal hits at cadets, or memories of the section room, figure 
largely. But whether you understand or not, you have to 
laugh, just for the rollicking joy that goes on behind you. 
The jolly storm of applause sweeps you helplessly along. 


346 HUNDREDTH NIGHT 

There are years when yon go to the Hundredth Night 
between snowbanks as high as yourself, and along slippery 
white paths; there are others when the hills are clouded, 
and the mist hangs low, and the gas lights twinkle and peer 
through a grey veil. There are still others when air and 
hills and sky are at the brightest and bonniest, with a clear, 
hard, brown earth ; and you cross the plain amid a glory of 
contesting lights : — gas round the quarters ; a young moon 
dipping her lovely crescent behind the hill; Newburgh’s 
electric lights winking and blinking like live things, from 
ten miles away; and close before you, the whole front of 
barracks in a blaze of lit-up rooms. It is so fair, so weird, 
that you can only look and look, back and forth, from side 
to side. 

As you gaze and loiter, small parties pass you on the way : 
people intent upon other effects than those of light and 
shadow. Generally a cadet with a girl — or two girls ; with 
sometimes a chaperon, and sometimes not. But remember 
that every West Point cadet is held to be a knight par ex- 
cellence; a gentleman all through; and so, by long usage 
and experience, judged to be a fit and sufficient escort on 
every such occasion. It is the regular thing. 

And then when the figures flit by you side by side or 
arm in arm ; pink and grey, or grey and yellow, or, as now, 
furs and cadet cloth, all your comment is for the pretty 
combination. And when some solitary greatcoat goes 
speeding along to meet an appointment at the Hotel or the 
houses, you instantly hope that the girl will not keep him 
waiting. 

For the minutes are running on ; and whoever wants a 
good seat — or a seat at all — had better not delay. 

There is a grey throng about the steps of the old mess- 
hall, and girls in quantity. 

They press up the stone steps, and pour into the hall, 
pretty and flushed, proud and sufficient. Officers with 


HUNDREDTH NIGHT 347 

their families join in, and now and then a distinguished 
stranger; and these fill up the front seats. Then come 
civilians, visitors, and their escorts. Behind the curtain 
mysterious sounds of tools at work tell of preparations 
not quite complete. There is music, a pause, and more 
music ; and then from behind the curtain a tall, grey figure 
steps gravely forth, bows low to the audience, and begins 
the regulation Hundredth Night address. It is the presi- 
dent of the first class. 

Whoever makes the speech, and whatever else he puts in 
it, the refrain is always: 

“ One hundred days to June ! 99 

I think I never knew but one exception; and I missed 
the old words then; but this night they were in full force. 
Yet the speech was in some ways as unlike most others as 
he himself was different from many men. Strong, tall, 
square shouldered, both mentally and physically, Cadet 
Trueman no more thought of turning a stone wall, or dodg- 
ing a river, than if they had been pebbles and rivulets. 
Which way he ought to go, that way he went ; the only sort 
of a steeplechase in which no man comes to grief. Not a 
brilliant man, but a diligent ; “ hard work and hard pray- 
ing” had brought him nobly through. Trueman stood 
high, wore high chevrons, and knew less (experimentally) 
of the area of barracks than any man in his class. No 
ladies’ man, as you might guess; although the chevrons, 
or something, won him many admiring looks. But if ever 
you met Mr. Trueman meandering round Flirtation with 
a girl, you might be sure it was a case of philanthropy, pure 
and simple, and that the damsel was on his hands by no 
volition of his own. And he never asked for the further 
favour of a walk after chapel, or on 0. G. P. He always 
acquitted himself well on such occasions, but that was the 
last of it; and he joyfully slid back among the bachelors 
again. And now, as he came forward and bowed to the 


348 HUNDREDTH NIGHT 

expectant throng, no thought of any — or all — the bright 
eyes in the room made his pulse one throb the quicker. He 
had stir enough, in the mere heading of his speech : 

“ One hundred days to June ! ” 

“ Who is that ? ” whispered a stylish new girl for whom 
Magnus Kindred played cavalier. 

“Fort Put. In moments of deepest affection, ‘Old 
Put.’ ” 

“ How absurd you cadets always are ! Wherefore do 
you call him that ? ” 

“ Only thing in the neighbourhood like him. Crownest 
is a trifle large for even his inches.” 

The girl looked indignant, as if she thought Magnus was 
fooling her ; but then the speech began. 

Happy for you, perhaps, that no complete copy has come 
to my hands ; you are spared the danger of being even asked 
to read it. But the last sentences so fixed themselves in 
Magnus Kindred’s mind that he sent them off to Cherry 
next day, word for word. And of course I have unlimited 
control of the correspondence. “ Ladies and Gentlemen ” 
figured politely in the opening words, but Cadet True soon 
forgot them; looking clean across the gay flower garden 
in front to the grey mass behind: the vivid, eager, force- 
ful lives hid away beneath those trim dress coats. 

“ One hundred days to J une ! To freedom, to power, 
to Life! Men of 18 — , shall your freedom be liberty or 
license ? your power sworn in for good, or for evil ? Shall 
life be a failure — or a success ? The names that rank high- 
est to-day, will they keep their proud position? The 
names that stand lower, will they show the world what 
they could have done here, but for Wave Motion and 
Spanish? ” 

And now Mr. Trueman had to pause, for this mention 
of their dire enemies brought the grey house down. 

“ It may be — it can be, if you will,” he went on. “ Every 


HUNDREDTH NIGHT 349 

man has it in him to do royal work. ‘The people that 
know their God shall be strong, and do exploits/ 

“ Fight tl e fight, Christian ! 

Jesua is o’er thee. 

Run the race, Christian ! 

Heaven is before thee. 

Thee from the love of Christ 
Nothing shall sever : 

Mount when thy work is done, 

Praise him forever.” 

The grey figure bowed and disappeared behind the cur- 
tain amid great cheering. 

“ Good for you, Old Put ! ” cried Magnus heartily. 
“You see,” he explained to his companion, “True’s just 
the same (or a trifle better) in barracks than he is at prayer- 
meeting. That’s how he won his name. Nothing but 
treachery could have put the old fort in the hands of the 
enemy, — and that failed. I believe,” said Mr. Kindred, 
turning bright eyes on his companion, “ that if Arnold had 
carried out his plan, the rocks on the hillside would have 
risen up and fought back the invaders.” 

Miss Cray looked at him. 

“You’re very patriotic, aren’t you, Mr. Kindred?” 

“Rather,” Magnus answered with dry emphasis. 

“ I’ve been abroad so long,” said the pretty girl, “ I get 
puzzled. I do know about Arnold. There’s his tablet in 
the chapel, you know. But who were Grant and Sher- 
man, anyway? Didn’t they figure in the last war, 
somehow? ” 

“ Some people thought they did,” said Cadet Kindred, 
with a face that had no expression whatever. And then, 
happily, the curtain drew up. 

But how shall I give any idea of the performance to one 
who has never seen the like? Hits at officers, burlesques 
of unpopular orders, take-offs of the girls, with jibes and 
chaff at each other that would have made anybody but 


350 


HUNDREDTH NIGHT 

cadets just savage. Being cadets, they caught the fun, 
stood the jeers, and laughed — roared — till the mess hall 
rang. 

With all this, songs — often very good ; or a charming bit 
of “ silent manual ” ; and scenes and situations sometimes 
true, always possible, and very droll. Then some mock 
machinery that one wondered how they ever found time to 
make; unheard-of problems and discoveries worked out in 
most ingenious ways, with just enough flavour of this or 
that instructor’s style to “ adorn the tale” — whether any 
moral came in or not. 

Enter a donkey, carefully compounded of four plebs 
within — and I cannot guess what without. Ears and tail 
of the proper length, hide of the proper colour. He is 
slightly jerky and uncertain about his first coming in; but 
that is all in keeping for a descendant of the donkey “ what 
wouldn’t go ” ; and there is no hitch whatever in the per- 
formance. I believe one of the legs fainted as time went 
on; but the little beast (I mean the donkey), being skil- 
fully pulled by the tail, beat a masterly retreat upon the 
other three. 

A showman comes in with an armful of pictures, clever 
crayon sketches of nooks on Flirtation ; of unhorsed cadets ; 
of cadet dreams, and first-post realities. The showman 
pulls them away, one after the other, with brief words of 
comment, prefacing the last with a bit of glowing praise 
and liking— and lo ! there stands before you the life-size 
“ counterfeit ” of the well-beloved Superintendent ; cleverly 
enlarged by the cadet artist from a picture in some maga- 
zine. How the men cheer ! They’ll have a slap at him, 
like enough, among the jokes, but they love him none the 
less. 

Then stalks out to view a stately papa, and a whole bevy 
of blooming daughters flutter in after him. They are 
dressed to kill, and come flirting and fanning, bridling and 


351 


HUNDREDTH NIGHT 

prinking, in a way to instruct some bona fide girls. The 
butterfly poise of these airy damsels is quite admirable, and 
could only have been won by long and careful study of the 
originals. 

A dance of cuirassiers follows : but thereby hangs a tail 
— longer than the donkey’s. 

There had been for some time a highly unpopular dog at 
the Post; whether bearing his own demerits, or those of 
his master, history saith not. But some months before this 
winter night, and with his owner away, the dog had 
been mysteriously and marvellously painted by hands 
unknown. 

Condign punishment was ready for the offenders. But 
the prefix to the old receipt for cooking a hare (“ First 
catch it ”) is eminently in place at West Point, — and no 
one was caught. It was told, sub rosa and with great de- 
light, how word flashed over the wires : “ The dog has been 
painted”; and how, when the owner came back, he met 
the chief culprit first of all, and said he was glad to see 
him. But all this had passed, and the dog was himself 
again. 

Now, to-night, the four cuirassiers, booted and spurred 
and helmeted, went on with their dance, singing their song 
the while, when suddenly from behind the scenes slid in 
the dog — the paint stripes in order as they had been be- 
fore, and the medallion on its side with the number of its 
master’s regiment all complete. The carefully moulded 
little body gave hardly a hint of its pillow-case skin. 

Midway across the stage the dog stood still. And in- 
stantly the cuirassiers paused in their dance, drew up 
around the dog and solemnly saluted, with sword points to 
the earth, as if the whole tactical department had been 
there in person. A wild dance followed, and the dog was 
then solemnly borne off on the points of the cuirassiers’ 
weapons. But words cannot give the utter drollery of 


352 HUNDREDTH NIGHT 

the thing, nor tell the perfect way in which it was carried 
out. 

Then came more music, and the reading of the Howitzer. 

A cadet Howitzer is a small, wholly original newspaper, 
full of everything in general; grinds, burlesques, sharp 
hints and comments, with bits of ridiculous fact as well; 
free as air, and sometimes as breezy. Verses to the cadet 
girl, verses at her, as well as touching the stringent pro- 
fessor, and the unpopular drill. Grievances painted in 
high colours, and jokes about cadets that are as merciless 
as they are many. 

“ Scene : Riding hall. 

Lieut. B. : “ Mr. H., let go that horse’s mane, sir ! ” 

Cadet H. “ I — I — I’m afraid he’ll fall down if I do, 
Lieutenant.” 

“ Why is T. like necessity ? 

<( Because he knows no Law.” 

“ A first-class horse — the Spanish pony.” 

“ Mabel, what became of that West Pointer you were 
engaged to ? ” 

“ 0, he turned out to be a disappointer.” 

“ Scene : Section room. 

Cadet L. : “ Stucco is made by mixing gypsum with a 
large solution.” 

Instructor : “ Large solution of what ? ” 

Cadet : “ The text does not state, sir. It just says it is 
mixed with a solution of size.” 

“ Scene: Section room. 

Professor : “ Now, gentlemen, the Indians made signs 
of natural and living objects their language. For instance, 
if they wished to represent the Little Horn River they 
drew a little horn ; and if they wished to represent the Big 
Horn River, they drew a big horn.” 

Cadet C. : “ Professor, how did they represent the Little 
Big Horn?” 


HUNDREDTH NIGHT 353 

Such, and such like, keen-worded trifles; a line, or a 
page long; often very bright, seldom complimentary, but 
always most impartial in their bestowal of hits. 

Miranda : “ I think Mr. W. is the most absent-minded 
cadet I know.” 

J enny : “ How so, dear ? ” 

Miranda : “ Why, last night he took the waltz position 
when we were just sitting still on the Hotel piazza ! ” 

cc For sale: We have on hand a large edition of C.’s 
‘ Art of Dismounting ’ ; the most complete work of its kind. 
Also K.’s treatise on ‘ The Tanbark ; as I have found it/ ” 

So goes the Howitzer ; and the audience are kindly told 
that at the end of the explosion the members of the medical 
department will pass in and out among the seats, admin- 
istering “ three pills, three times a day,” to each of the 
w r ounded. “ Warranted to cure.” 

I might give sharper-pointed details; but things that 
pass with the saying, in an evening frolic, might jar or rasp 
if written down in cold black and white. At the time (to 
their good sense be it spoken), no one laughs more readily 
than the sufferers themselves. And in spite of the local 
colour, which is confusing to a stranger, the jokes do very 
much explain themselves. As when the Irish schoolmaster, 
counting up his boys, suddenly demands : “ Where, thin, is 
Tommy L. ? ” and a make-believe urchin cries out : 
“ Plase, sor, he’s puttin’ on the shtamps on that last letter 
<to Philadelphy ! ” the shout from the Corps makes it easy 
to guess what sort of hands will open the letter. 

Now the curtain rises on Flirtation rocks and trees; 
and a well made-up damsel passes across the stage and out 
of sight, followed presently by a cadet captain, who hurries 
along in her steps, peering anxiously from side to side. 

“ She said she’d walk this way ! ” he murmurs per- 
plexedly, as he too disappears. 

The steps die out, and a third-class corporal comes on 


354 HUNDREDTH NIGHT 

the scene. He also scans the seats and the bushes as He 
hastens by. 

“ Wonder if I’m late ? ” he questions. “ She said she’d 
walk this way.” 

Again the silence settles down, broken this time by the 
less evenly assured tread of a pleb. “ Not long from home, 
but very far ! ” is written all over him. Plainly he is fol- 
lowing up a very unwonted gleam of pleasure. 

“ She said she’d walk this way ! ” he exclaims rather 
breathlessly as he dives in among the shadows. 

The scenes, by the way, are remarkably well painted by 
those busy amateur hands, and vary greatly from year to 
year. “ A street in old Vienna ” was especially good ; and 
some of the World’s Fair incidents pertaining thereto, 
laughable enough. 

But look at the clock upon the wall ! and remember that 
this is Saturday night. 

The last joke has shaken the house, the last song died 
away ; the gay company pours out of the old doors, and the 
Hundredth Night is over. 


XLIV 


PEES SING ON 

I work with fury and delight, because I must get on, and I do get 
on. —Baron Bunsen. 

M OKNING by morning now the shortening roll of 
days makes part of the cadet breakfast. 

“ Ninety-nine days to June ! ” 

“ Ninety-eight days to June ! ” 

“ Ninety-seven days to June ! ” 

And all listen, and every heart takes a lighter bound. 
Ask any man, from now on, what is the news, and the odds 
are that you will get for answer: 

“ Ninety-six days to June!” — or forty-six, as the case 
may be. I had a note once from a cadet, dated : 

“ Barracks. Sixty-four days to J une ! ” 

But then he forgot to sign his name. That did not 
matter. 

It is a strong pull, each man for himself, for the next 
three months ; a sort of individual “ tug of war.” I think 
Magnus had never worked so hard in all the time he had 
been at West Point. Perhaps chemistry and wave mo- 
tion had something to do with this, for our hero was no 
genius. Nothing but honest work carried him on. Higher 
thoughts than of rank lit up the musty pages, and made 
music for the dull company drills. Truly he was not un- 
mindful of the charms of an engineer post for Cherry ; but 
several born mathematicians stood between him and any 
hope of that. Yet all he could do, he would. The honour 
of the Christian name, no less than Cherry’s sweet life, was 
355 


356 PRESSING ON 

in his trust, to dim or to brighten ; and no man should ever 
adorn the tale with the name of Charlemagne Kindred, 
when saying that religion spoiled men, and should be left 
to women and children. 

So Magnus had his own secret joy over every high mark. 
Never had he enjoyed “ maxing it,” as he did that winter, 
and never had he done it so often. 

Some years ago, when the graduating class received their 
Bibles, and Dr. Wm. M. Taylor made the presentation ad- 
dress, he bade every man cull from his morning reading — 
no matter how brief it was — a sort of rose-in-the-button- 
hole word for the day. Something like that our young 
cadet had learned to do. Nothing had hindered his daily 
reading since furlough, hard as it seemed to spare the min- 
utes, some days, when work was unusually pressing. But 
perhaps that very pressure taught him to dive right into 
the meaning of what he read ; catch up a message, and bear 
it away. Now a promise, now a precept, now a prayer; a 
breath of joyous hope, a gleam of unearthly glory. That 
real rose-in-the-buttonhole which dress coats and blouses 
may never wear, would have drooped in the drill, fainted 
in the section room, and been lost in the tanbark. But it 
seemed to Magnus as if his invisible blooms grew only 
fairer as the day w'ent on. The fragrance was royal, as it 
came and went in such variety. 

“ Hopeth all things, endureth all things.” — 

“ Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.” — 

“ Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and 
not unto men.” — 

“Nevertheless, the Lord stood by me.” — 

Nobody knew all this; few people read the signs; though 
they did note the high marks, and could say that “ Kin- 
dred ” (in his own way) was the gayest man in barracks. 
But I fear they deemed him a crank, all the same. Rig 
would look up at the clatter caused by “Analytical Me- 


357 


PRESSING ON 

chanics,” as it struck the corner of the room; and then 
see Magnus with an odd smile on his face make a rush for 
the obnoxious volume, and plunge into it again with all his 
might. “ Studying like mad,” as his easy-going comrade 
phrased it; but Magnus only called it “heartily” 

Or in the section room, with his wits gone a wool gather- 
ing, and his ideas in May-day confusion; every thought 
he had, tangled up with those last letters from home ; des- 
perately tempted to “bugle it,” and let some other man 
bear the brunt ; then the sweet “ royal law ” he was wearing 
that day gave its counsel, and braced him at once to do the 
right thing. He would answer, ready or unready, when his 
turn came. No man stumbled or doubted the truth of re- 
ligion, because of any section-room meanness or selfishness 
on the part of Charlemagne Kindred. 

And so an unwelcome order, from perhaps a disagreeable 
man, turned round in the wind and came first (for him) 
as the Lord’s command. “ Obey them that have the rule 
over you, and submit yourselves.” You will easily guess 
that Cadet Kindred remained high in discipline. 

And later on, first in studies also? No, by no means. 
Willet’s Point never showed its head on the horizon; the 
leaders in the class were not men to be dislodged. And 
some studies came hard. Then (and now perhaps it is 
well I am far away from some of my friends) Cadet Kin- 
dred would have nothing to do with “ ponies.” Those se- 
ductive little frauds looked just as enticing, maybe, to him 
as to other men ; but common sense and loyalty made him 
let them alone. 

“ Common sense — for what am I here for,” he answered 
Pig one day, “but to tread the paths of learning? And 
that does not mean going pony-back.” 

“ You can sort of line out the ground, you know,” Rig 
said; “and then wear out your shoes all you want to at 
San Carlos,” 


358 PRESSING ON 

San Carlos! What visions came with the name. For 
a moment Rig’s face showed through a golden haze. 

“ But besides/’ Magnus went on, bringing his thoughts 
back, “ it’s not doing things ‘ heartily.’ The Lord gave me 
this appointment to make just the most out of it I could. 
I cannot look up to Him from a ‘pony,’ and say I have 
learned my lesson.” 

“But the Bible says, He always helps those that help 
themselves,” remarked Rig. 

“ No, it doesn’t; not the first word. You have borrowed 
some man’s ‘ pony ’ for that. It says ‘ Fear not, for I will 
help thee,’ — ” and Magnus plunged into his lesson again. 
The Divine strength that is trusted in, is a wonderful 
power ; and Cadet Kindred pushed on and pushed up, every 
now and then took some other man’s scalp, and never lost 
his own. 

And he found the Sunday rest a great thing. Broken in 
upon, indeed, by a guard-mounting and parade; by police 
calls, inspection, and now and then guard duty; but be- 
tween whiles full of quiet time to think. 

It was such a pleasure to pile up the study books Saturday 
night, and leave the dark mass untouched till Monday 
morning. It took faith — a good deal — in some crises of 
work, but it paid well. The free time was so good. Not 
hours snatched unlawfully, but taken of right, according to 
that most wise and blessed law of the Lord : “ In it thou 
shalt not do any work.” 

In fine weather Magnus kept himself much out of doors, 
letting the dust of the week clear all away from eyes and 
heart and brain, till the balance of things, so often confus- 
ed in the weekday rush, swung steady and true once more. 

“ I don’t see how you do it, Kin,” said Randolph one day. 
u Do you run a light after taps ? ” 

“Never,” said Magnus. “I study all I can Saturday, 
and as early as I can Monday morning.” 


PRESSING ON 


359 


“ Always ready for eight o’clock ? ” 

“ I will not say the details are always just as clear as 
they were on Saturday, but then my head is so much 
clearer. I get along, somehow.” 

“ Well, I should say you did ! ” commented Rig. “ Max- 
ing it every blessed day last week.” 


XLV 


NOTHING SERIOUS 

A warrior so bold and a virgin so bright 
Conversed as they sat on the green. 

Alonzo the brave was the name of this knight: 

The damsel, the fair Imogene. 

—Lewis. 

O NE of the mild amusements of this spring for 
Magnus was the watching Rig. Eor Mr. McLean 
had fallen in love. Not deeply, for that implies 
certain other depths — or hopelessly, for there was every 
likelihood that he would get out again all safe; but un- 
manageably. Unutterably, Rig called it, and Magnus un- 
endurably. 

So the young man mooned over photographs, sported (in 
his room) an end of pink riband; tumbled his hair all he 
could, and went down in everything. 

“ I say, Rig ! ” Magnus admonished him one night, 
“ keep out of the ‘ immortals/ whatever else you do.” 

“ I cannot do much of anything,” Rig answered mourn- 
fully. 

“ Well, I’d try, if I died in the effort,” said Magnus. 
“ Bone chevrons ; your charmer has a quick eye for them.” 

“ She has a quick eye for everything.” 

“ Wearing bell buttons.” But Rig did not heed him. 

“ Confess, Kin, you never saw such eyes.” 

“ Only about five hundred and forty times, when I used 
to go cat-fishing. Ever notice catfish eyes, Rig? ” 

“ They’re so blue ! ” said Cadet McLean. “ So deeply, 
darkly ” 

“ If you don’t shut up,” Magnus shouted at him, “ I’ll 
360 


NOTHING SERIOUS 361 

try if I can’t shake some sense into you. Quit sighing 
like a furnace. You nearly blew the gas out.” 

“ Of course I can’t expect you to understand,” said Rig. 
“You live only in books, far away from all this sort of 
thing.” 

“ I hope so, this sort,” said Magnus. 

“ You see, my heart is larger than my head,” said Mr. 
McLean. “ Always was.” 

But now Magnus threw down his book, and pitched into 
his friend very literally; pounding him, hustling him, get- 
ting him into a real fisticuff fight to protect himself. 

“ Feel better, don’t you ? ” said Mr. Kindred, when the 
two faced each other, flushed and panting. “ Balance of 
power restored ? ” 

“I don’t know how I feel!” said McLean. “I’ve lost 
all my ideas.” 

“Well, don’t advertise them at any high figure,” said 
Magnus. 

" Let ’em alone, 

And they will come home, 

With their little tails behind ’em. 

Sit down and study, like a reasonable being. If I were 
a woman, I wouldn’t look at a man who couldn’t hold his 
head up when my back was turned.” 

“ It is quite impossible for me to look at a book,” said 
Rig. 

“Very good; sit still and sigh, and I’ll write your ex- 
planation.” 

“ To whom ? What about ? ” Rig sat up now and gazed 
at him. 

“ To the Prof. To-morrow. As follows : 

“ ‘ Sir : I have the honour to state that I have fallen into 
a six-inch mud puddle, and cannot get out in time for 
recitation. So wave motion must wait.’ ” 

“ Stuff ! ” McLean said rather angrily. 


362 


NOTHING SERIOUS 

“ Stuff, and nothing but stuff. Rig, when you get fired 
in June, your dear devoted will not turn her head to see 
which way you go to take the train. Not much!” said 
Magnus, relieving his feelings with a bit of slang, and then 
diving into his own problems for the next day. And Rig 
could get neither word nor look more that night. But 
whatever traditions may say, unlimited chocolate creams 
do not help a man with his tactics ; nor does plum cake after 
taps provide him, a clear head for next day’s wave motion. 

“ You could make better marks, Mr. McLean,” said the 
Superintendent one day, meeting Rig. “Why don’t you, 
sir?” 

And if Rig had been openly honest, he would have an- 
swered : 

“ Love — and mince pie, sir.” 

Magnus scolded his friend, fought him, jeered him; then 
tried other measures. 

The days were softening and lengthening, with grass and 
flowers on the jump. "Visitors were arriving in numbers; 
and for Magnus had come, from away across the continent, 
a bunch of snowdrops in Cherry’s last letter. Somehow his 
own great happiness made the young cadet anxious for his 
friend. 

“Look here, Trent,” he said one day to another class- 
mate, “can’t you pitch in and spoon that Curry girl? 
Rig will be ruined.” 

“ Spoon her yourself.” 

“Haven’t time. One more will make no difference to 
you.” 

“ Thanks. Rig will put a bullet in my head, if he sus- 
pects.” 

“ Well, your brain always did need fresh air,” said Mag- 
nus, “ so that will fit. Why, to-day, in the section room, 
Hammer asked him the colour of old red sandstone, — and 
Rig answered : 


363 


NOTHING SERIOUS 

“ ‘ Blue, Lieutenant.’ ” 

“ Ha ! ha ! ” laughed Mr. Trent. “ But isn’t this rather 
a queer business to be talked up by our high and mighty 
magnate of the tender conscience ? The man who keels 
over at the mere sight of a c pony.’ ” 

“ Pshaw ! if it was some girls,” said Magnus. “ But it 
will make no difference to her either. You’ve both worn 
your hearts out — supposing you ever had any.” 

“ Thanks — awfully ! And you think Miss Curry might 
be induced to hand over ‘those fossil remains that she 
terms her affections ’ to me ? ” 

“To your temporary care. You wear chevrons,” said 
Magnus. “And your affections are as fossilised as hers, 
allowing for the argument’s sake that such things ever 
existed. Just stroll up on the other side, when Big’s 
around. She’ll be delighted. And as neither of you 
could possibly fall in love with anybody, there’ll be nobody 
hurt.” 

“ Except Big.” 

“Big!” Magnus said impatiently. “Big ought to be 
cut in little pieces and sewed up some other way.” 

“ Kin,” said Mr. Trent, striking an easy attitude across 
the back of a chair, “ you amuse me.” 

“Well, clear out and amuse yourself,” said Magnus. 
“ I’ve got a previous with this old book. And if Catkins 
finds you here, you’ll be skinned for all he is worth.” 

Which warning Mr. Trent saw fit to heed. 


XLYI 

TRYING LETTERS 


Though there’s always enough to bear, 

There is always something to do ; 

We have never to seek for care, 

When we have the world to get through. 

—Charles Swain. 

B UT whoever succeeded in driving the moth away 
. from the candle? Magnus was fain to content 
himself with remembering that on most singed 
human moths, wings grow anew very fast. 

Miss Curry welcomed Mr. Trent’s advances with a 
gracious smile, but she by no means let go her hold of 
Rig ; and Rig had perfectly lost his head. The girl might 
flout him five times a day, and these cool applications 
did but heighten the fever. 

From the middle of April on, there was pretty steady 
‘•'cadet weather.” Whatever the dawn may threaten, it 
always clears off in time for drill, except on Saturdays, 
when the order is reversed, and the rain sets in with double 
force just as the hours of freedom begin. 

Rain did not hinder some men. Magnus rather enjoyed 
wrapping himself in his long grey coat and stalking off 
into the gloom and the fog. The hills were so lovely in 
their misty caps, the air so laden with spring sweets : spice 
bush and trillium, black birch and dogwood and azalia, 
and all the leaf buds just bursting their varnished sheath. 
How fragrant the pines were! and the cedars and hem- 
locks : how dainty the small clouds of wayfaring birds just 
come to spend the night. And in another month his birds 
of passage would be here, and the air full of their voices. 
364 


365 


TRYING LETTERS 

Sometimes when Magnus thought of it, the excitement half 
made him wild; and he would set off for a sharp run up 
the hill, or a one-sided leapfrog among the rocks. Then 
he would throw himself down on the moss and hold his 
head and think. Or he took a squirrel track to the top of 
a tall tree and shouted (not too loud) and waved his cap 
to the passing trains, and saluted the old flag. 

The Point filled up fast with candidates ; and as Magnus 
looked at them, he did not much wonder at the glances 
which had once been cast on him. He found a slight 
touch of contempt the easiest thing in the world to creep 
in. A host of these sombre drones seeking something to 
do, a swarm of gay butterflies demanding only honey; what 
a motley crowd it made. 

Even Magnus was drawn in by the honey-seekers; and 
took Miss Freak a walk after trailing arbutus, because she 
asked him so sweetly ; and indeed himself asked some other 
girls to go here or there. And, of course, being a cadet, 
he said pretty things and made himself agreeable, though 
never beyond certain limits (N. B. I do not mean cadet 
limits, this time). As Miss Freak said, with her charm- 
ing frankness: 

“ He never gives you anything to think of at night, when 
you get your back hair down.” 

But in spite of that small drawback, Mr. Kindred had 
his full share of what Mr. Clinker facetiously termed 
“ drilling the Light Battery.” 

Some very pleasant and sensible girls came to the Point 
that spring ; and in the great longing for sweeter tones than 
those of the average cadet, Magnus was ready enough to 
make acquaintance and take walks. And the girl generally 
declared : “ It has been most delightful.” Only when one 
gauzy creature looked up at him and said : 

“ Isn’t it strange? You know I’ve always wanted to 
live at an army post — but I’m not engaged yet,” — then 


366 


TRYING LETTERS 

Cadet Kindred grew silent, and as soon as possible re- 
signed in favour of Mr. Clinker. 

So the hope-gilded days flew on : but with the end of May 
came a check. 

Magnus got back from a long walk, to find two letters 
on his table. I know it is the correct thing for hero and 
heroine to “tear open” their letters, but Magnus cut his 
as carefully as if the very envelope might hold its quota of 
words. 

“Dear Magnus,” so the clear handwriting began, “I 
am afraid — no, I suppose I hope — that you will be very 
sorry. For I cannot go East with Mrs. Kindred and the 
girls.” 

And here, truth compels me to say, Cadet Kindred threw 
down the letter, and stamped about the room in a small 
tempest of displeasure. 

“What’s up?” queried Rig, who had noted the post- 
mark. “ Hasn’t gone back on you, has she ? ” 

For which harmless suggestion, Magnus promptly tum- 
bled the offender out of his chair, and left him to pick 
himself up. 

“I say! Steady on that, you know,” commented Mr. 
McLean. “ Girls are plenty ; but where will you find a 
friend like me?” 

“ That was a beastly insinuation ! ” said Magnus in hot 
wrath. 

“Was it? Girls are all alike, old boy.” And Rig 
heaved a sigh. 

“ They’re not ! And this isn’t what you mean by a girl. 
It’s a — a ” 

“An angel, perhaps,” said Rig. “Then allow me to 
inquire what business you have to be rattled, with anything 
an angel sees fit to do.” 

“ Rig,” said Magnus seriously, pausing before him, “ do 
you know whereabouts we are in barracks?” 


367 


TRYING LETTERS 

“ Second floor, first div.,” Rig answered. 

“Well, you can have a chance to measure the breadth 
of the window, and the depth to the ground, just as soon 
as you want it.” 

“Thanks, Fm sure,” said Mr. McLean. “At this 
moment, I am hard at work on the problem of your 
temper, minus your common sense. What does the letter 
say? ” 

“ Don’t know yet,” said Magnus. “ I’ve only read three 
lines.” 

Rig looked at him, and then gathering up his own books, 
he carried them over to the cold steam pipes, laid them 
down, and perched himself at one end. 

“You must excuse me,” he said; “you are so plainly 
insane, that a due regard to my personal safety brings 
about this temporary coolness. ‘ Distance lends enchant- 
ment ’ — but you are more irresistible near by.” 

Magnus flung back into his chair again, with a half 
groan, and took up the letter. If it had been release 
from quarters he would have gone to Fort Put for the 
reading. 

“ Cannot come East ! ” he muttered to himself. “ What’s 
the use of reading on? She will not — and that’s just where 
it is.” And yet he read. 

“ Papa is not strong this spring ; not at all able for the 
journey; and I cannot leave him alone. He says ‘Go’ — 
but I cannot, Magnus. Not this year.” (“Bless her for 
that ! ”) Magnus interlined. “ But the girls are to see 
everything, and remember everything, and tell it all to me ; 
and maybe when you graduate we can all be there. 

“I think I will not write any more to-day, because I 
cannot talk of anything but this; and it is not best to say 
too much. But we are fighting in the same field, Magnus, 
even if we are out of sight of each other, and we get our 
orders from the same King. How I have thought over and 


368 TRYING LETTERS 

over, the seeing you at parade ! I felt sure I could always 
pick you out from all the three hundred. Good-bye. — 
Your Cherry/’ 

It was well for Magnus that he had little time to brood 
over his disappointment. June was near at hand, some 
few “ planks” of the Board of Visitors already arriving, 
and some last study to be done. 

“ You bone straight on through the year,” Randolph said 
to him one day. “ Why, in life, man, don’t you let up, 
now and then?” 

“ I’m after another bone,” Magnus answered him. But 
he did not say that when the “ standing ” roll came to the 
hand he loved best, her eyes must find the name of Charle- 
magne Kindred as high as it could possibly be. 

“ Just as high as I can put it,” he told himself, with a 
fresh rush at everything. For faith does not spoil a man, 
nor holy living mar his scholarship. 

So Magnus studied, and played tennis, and ran races; 
did exploits on the poles and ropes, and threw everybody 
who dared wrestle with him ; won his marks, kept his chev- 
rons, and did not lose his popularity. 

But disappointments are said to hunt in couples. The 
next week after Cherry’s letter of bad news, came one 
from Mrs. Kindred, with addition to the same. For she, 
too, must stay at home. 

“ Cherry wants my help in every way,” wrote the mother. 
“ I must stay with her. And it is really better, dear, on 
all accounts. For if I live till next June, I must go then 
to see you graduate, — and two such journeys cost.” 

Magnus sat back in great gloom, and declared that June 
was “ fizzling out.” 

“ I suppose the next word will be that Viola and Rose 
have some sort of a previous at the North Pole,” he said. 


XLVII 

MRS. CONGRESSMAN 


Pure was her mind and simple her intent, 

Good all she sought and kindness all she meant. 

— Crabbe. 

B UT no such climax followed. The girls wrote that 
I they were to leave home on such a day, in charge 
of the wife of that very Congressman who had 
given Magnus his appointment. A true woman of the 
world in some things, but kindly, and not wanting in sense 
and tact. People said she liked uniforms herself, and was 
glad of a train of girls because it drew on a train of cadets. 
But neither thing was so very exceptional and unheard of 
that people needed to be hard on her. And she chose her 
girls well; always, if she could, some hid-away damsel 
whose one chance of getting to the Point this might be. 
And now, when the boy owed his place to her husband’s 
good offices, it was her delight to take his sisters. The 
one stipulation was that she should have her own way 
about the bills. 

“ I must have a clear mind,” she said, “ and stop when I 
choose, and where I choose, or the trip won’t be a speck of 
good. It’s nobody’s business how I manage my affairs, and 
you chits needn’t strike in to be the first.” 

So in this lady’s ample care Rose and Violet made the 
long journey, and enjoyed every scrap of it. The meals in 
the dining car, and (I’m afraid) the bunks in the so-called 
sleeper ; even the small delays, for then they could look out 
to better advantage ; and Mrs. Congressman voted them the 
two best girls she had ever taken anywhere. “ Always ready 
for breakfast,” she said, “ and always willing to wait. It 


370 


MRS. CONGRESSMAN 

was as good as music to hear them laugh when we had to 
switch off on the side track, or when folks jammed 
past them to dinner; it sweetened the whole car; curled 
everybody’s feathers ” 

It was true, and I think would have been, even on a 
journey not into “ Fairyland,” though of course that 
helped. But the two were very quiet in their eager look- 
ing; the laugh and the exclamation were low-toned and 
well-bred. They asked sensible questions, and not too many 
even of them. Only when they got talking of Magnus, then 
indeed, the words came, with such sparkles and dimples 
and exultation, that Mrs. Congressman began to think her 
husband had done a bright thing for the country, when he 
gave that young soldier his place. But no one else in the 
car found out that they had a brother at West Point, and 
were on their way to see him ; nor that their escort was the 
wife of an Hon. M. C. ; such cheap fame our two girls had 
not learned to seek. 

And thus it was a delightful little party that after some 
hours of rest, and a late breakfast, bestowed themselves in 
a palace car of the 11.30 train, and went swaying and 
swinging up the river. 

People may say they have seen the Hudson, but never 
before as it is to-day, or as it will be to-morrow. The tide, 
the wind, the time of year, the temperature, the magnetic 
conditions, join hands in an endless chain of new effects. 
With a blue sky it is one thing, and will change its com- 
plexion on the instant, with the shadow of a passing cloud. 
To-day, in a frolic of white caps racing down before the 
north wind, and to-morrow rolling up in dull leaden surges, 
with a southern Banshee at its back. Now lapping the 
shore with sweetest whispers, now decked with a fringe of 
winter ice. Then frozen over from shore to shore, fitting 
in among the hills like an accurately cut sheet of white 
paper. But living, even then, with mysterious cracks and 


MRS. CONGRESSMAN 371 

reports, with little plashes, where the tide breaks out along 
the edge. 

It was May yet, with the lilac storm just past, and the 
river in full flood, tossed and heaving from the strain of 
the east wind. The green of the hills — the endless shades 
of the young leafage — seemed almost to change while you 
looked. The girls grew too breathless to talk even about 
Magnus, and to the hackneyed eyes of Mrs. Congressman, 
there was positive refreshment in the way those two arm- 
chairs whirled on their pivots, for last glimpses and new 
effects. 

“ My dear girls, I wish my neck had the untirable qual- 
ity of yours,” she said. 

“ Tired — how could one be tired ? ” said Violet. “ Oh, 
Rose! just see that vessel with her sails swung out each 
side. That must be what Cooper means by ‘wing and 
wing/ ” 

“Yes, the wind is stirring up,” said Mrs. Congressman; 
“ Fm sure I wish it would; ” and she plied her fan. 

“ Let me fan you ! ” Rose cried, turning her chair away 
from the entrancing view. 

“ No, no ! Look out and see all you can. I may be an 
old goose, but I know a little.” 

“ You are just as kind as you can be, Mrs. Ironwood,” 
said Rose gratefully. 

“But allow me to remark, young ladies,” said their 
friend, looking amused, “that at West Point there are 
also some things, and people, to look at. So don’t get your 
necks stiff. You must not gaze in one direction all the 
time, there.” 

“Yes, ma’am. 0, Violet, did you hear? The next 
stop is Garrisons ! ” And the two girls took hold of hands, 
as if to keep each other still. 

“Yes, we’re fairly in the Highlands now,” said Mrs. 
Congressman, tying her bonnet strings. “ Well, children, 


372 


MRS. CONGRESSMAN 


Fm glad you’re so happy, and it’s a real pleasure to have 
you along. Some girls are just a nuisance at West Point.” 

“ Oh, I hope we shall not be a nuisance,” Violet said, 
but looking out all the while. 

“ I’m afraid we shall make a great many mistakes,” said 
Rose, studying the rocky green Dunderberg with her heart 
in her eyes. “You know we have just lived at home. 
Couldn’t you tell us now, before we get there, how to do ? ” 

“Bridges for rivers you’ll not have to cross,” quoth 
Mrs. Congressman, who had imbibed a little of her hus- 
band’s manner, which now and then came out. “No use, 
child; you never do what you think you will. The chief 
thing at West Point, as everywhere, is to be a lady as much 
as a girl, and that you both are, always.” 

“ Oh, thank you, ma’am ! ” Rose said warmly. 

“ There is one other thing,” Mrs. Congressman went on, 
“ that I might just remark. No manner of use, but it ’ll 
not do any harm. It is only, girls, that you must never 
believe anything cadets tell you.” 

This brought both chairs round on a sharp pirouette. 

“Not anything!” 

“ But, you do not mean Magnus.” 

“ Oh, Magnus is all the knights of the round table rolled 
into one; of course he takes in truth among his smaller 
virtues. The rest do not.” 

“ Why, I thought Magnus said truth was one of the very 
first things there ! ” said Rose. 

“ Official truth. No cadet is allowed to fib officially. So 
they take it out socially.” 

The speaker kept a perfectly grave face, and the two 
girls looked aghast, felt so, all through the tunnel. But as 
they ran out in sight of Fort Montgomery and the tall out- 
lines that rose up beyond, cadets (except Magnus) sunk 
down into very sublunary things. 

“ Oh, well, Magnus isn’t so,” Rose said contentedly. 


MRS. CONGRESSMAN 


373 


“ And we are not likely to see much of other cadets,” 
Violet said, pressing close to her window. 

Mrs. Congressman watched them for a minute; the 
graceful heads, the fair, well-bred faces; but then she 
seemed to find something very amusing out of her own 
window, for she smiled to herself till they reached Gar- 
risons. There might be several cadets, she thought, who 
would have a word to say to that statement. 

If Magnus had scanned the way over and up, because 
there was nobody there, for him, with what a difference 
the two young sisters watched every point where possibly 
he might be. Silently they followed their leader into the 
old omnibus, and noted every stone, stick, and leaf, that 
decked the road up the hill. 

Passing the mess-hall came a new sensation ; for the day 
was so warm that windows and doors stood wide open, and 
there was not only the usual tumult of voices, but also a 
tangle of heads, arms, and grey cloth in view from the 
omnibus. 

“ The boys are at dinner,” said Mrs. Ironwood. 

“ Oh, and is Magnus there, too ? ” cried the girls. 

“ Unless he’s in the hospital.” 

“ In the hospital ! ” 

“ He ought to be, if he’s not eating his dinner. Might 
have sprained his ankle, dismounting too fast. Might have 
swallowed too much of Miss Somebody’s cake.” 

But both these ideas were summarily dismissed. 

“ He is in there, of course,” Rose said, her eyes full, and 
her heart wafting a blessing to the unseen brother; and 
with one consent the girls kissed their hands to the old 
grey building. 

“ Now, children,” said Mrs. Congressman as they jolted 
on, “I must tell you one thing. This is all very well, 
tucked away in the ’bus with me; but never do you kiss 
hands to anybody at West Point, under other circum- 


374 MRS. CONGRESSMAN 

stances. There are always cadets lurking round in the 
bushes, and they’ll think you mean them ” 

How the girls laughed ! Whether because they had just 
been so near Magnus, or at this image of an ambush of 
other cadets, or the faint spice of danger in the air, or 
the general culmination; but even the quiet Rose came 
down from her dignity, and the omnibus rattled up to the 
hotel with a chorus of fun inside. 

The needs of life are helpful and calming. Washing the 
dust off quiets one down, and prosaic dinner brings back 
one’s sober senses. It was an extremely demure pair of 
girls that followed Mrs. Congressman into the dining- 
room, and gave earnest heed while she ordered dinner, 
surveyed the guests, scolded the waiter, and praised the 
soup. 

“ You must eat, girls,” she said. “ Build yourselves up 
for what’s before you. I suppose this is the last quiet min- 
ute we shall have to ourselves till we go away.” 

“ What is to happen to us ? ” said Violet merrily. 

“ Walks,” said Mrs. Ironwood. “ And talks. And 
stands. I hope you’ve both brought plenty of shoes.” 

“ I noticed the stones, as we came along,” said Rose. 

“ Stones ! It’s the soft going that tells on the shoes, 
child. I brought Mary Gates here one rainy spring, and 
she finished her overshoes in a week, and I had to send her 
home.” 

“In a week! Did she dance instead of walking?” 

“Danced attendance,” said Mrs. Congressman. “I 
didn’t mean to pun, girls, but that was the fact. Now I 
should take you straight off to the guard-house to see Mag- 
nus ” 

“ The guard-house? ” 

“ The visitors’ room, there, silly ! but work begins at two 
o’clock, and we shouldn’t find him. So I’ll go and get a 
snooze, and you’d best do the same.” 


MRS. CONGRESSMAN 375 

“ We could not possibly sleep,” said Violet. “ We ? ll sit 
out on the piazza and look.” 

“ IPs a fine view, whichever way,” said Mrs. Ironwood ; 
“but the Land of Nod is more to my mind just now. Sit 
out here, then, or do what you like, only don’t go off hotel 
limits. There’s no town crier here. And call me at a 
quarter past three. And girls” — she put her head inside 
the door again — “whatever you do, don’t go down and 
stand at the hotel fence.” 

The girls listened to the retreating footsteps, but then 
they looked at each other and laughed. 

“ West Point must be an odd place,” said Rose. 

“And she is the oddest woman! What ails the hotel 
fence, any more than all other fences ? ” said Violet. “ It 
looks pretty strong.” 

However, they obeyed orders, and wandering about a 
little, as all doors stood open, came presently out upon the 
north piazza and the north view. 


XLVIII 


THE GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 

The little birds sang as if it were 
The one day of summer in all the year. 

—Lowell. 

I DO not know when Mrs. Congressman would have 
been roused from her nap, if the clock on the old tower 
had not told its tale of the passage of time. But when 
three sonorous notes had sounded, after that the girls kept 
close watch, for soon Magnus would be but a half hour 
away. 

They passed round to the west side, and sat watching 
the hills and the plain and the clock, by turns; and it 
wanted two minutes of the quarter when they went in. And 
Mrs. Ironwood was prompt. She waked up at once, donned 
a fresh gown and an astonishing bonnet; looked her girls 
over critically, to make sure their simple preparations had 
come out all right, then sailed away down the steps and 
across the plain, with her pretty convoy close following. 

Late spring everywhere, blue sky and hot sun ; a ravish- 
ing green carpet, and just a stir of such air as breathes 
nowhere but in the Highlands. Gaily dressed women 
spotted the green, dark-blue officers came and went; the 
bugler at the sallyport handled and toned his bugle. 

Straight through the sallyport the Western dame led 
her two girls, passing grey coats on the way across the area, 
and meeting others at the guard-house; nodding to one, 
hailing another, but giving no introductions; until after 
making known her wishes to the magnificent officer of the 
day, she turned to her girls, and presented Cadet-Captain 
376 





PARADE REST IN’ CAMP 


GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 377 

Trueman. Then panted up the narrow staircase to the vis- 
itors’ room, which was hot, and not magnificent. 

Mrs. Ironwood and her fan at once absorbed the window, 
the two girls stood shyly behind her; and back and forth 
before their eyes went the slim grey figures in the area. 
Some who knew Mrs. Ironwood and doffed their caps to 
her gave just a swift second glance at the two new faces. 
For a cadet never stares, or does it so surreptitiously from 
under his visor that nobody knows. 

But the minutes seemed long. Mrs. Ironwood’s fan 
plied back and forth, the girls stood watching. 

“ What makes them all look just alike ? ” said Violet. “ I 
should say that man has been across six times already.” 
Mrs. Ironwood laughed. 

“ Maybe he has,” she said. “ You’ll bring the chaos to 
order in a day or two. Look very monotonous, don’t they ? 
I suppose you’ll not even know Magnus when he comes.” 

But a little cry from both the girls answered that. An- 
other grey figure came hurrying across the open space, 
swung his cap high in air beneath the window, and came 
tearing up the stairs. 

After the first words, Mrs. Ironwood went back to her 
seat, and left them to themselves, interviewing at more 
length some of her friends below; but then she made a 
move. 

“ We must get out of here,” she said. “ There come more 
bonnets, and there’ll be more cadets, and we shan’t have 
standing room.” 

" When the bugle blows,” said Magnus. “ I can’t leave 
here till four o’clock. But it’s close on that now.” 

“ And then we can have you all the rest of the afternoon,” 
said Violet. 

“ No, little peach blossom, you cannot. There’s a review 
on hand. I’ll take you down to the seats. There it goes— ” 
And the sweet four o’clock call rang out ill front of bar- 


378 GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 


racks, repeated then at different points, and answered by 
soft echoes from the hill. 

The little party made their way out, and down among 
the old trees by the officers 5 row, where already the seats 
were filling np. But Magnus found them a good place, and 
himself stood in front ; mounting guard over his treasures 
with a joy and pride it was pleasant to see. He quite ig- 
nored the suggestive looks that came from other men in 
grey. J ust now, he wanted his sisters all to himself. And 
the way they gazed at him could not be told. 

To see how he knew by instinct when an officer came by ; 
instantly whirling around to salute, to note how very often 
that cap came off to some embodiment of fashion and 
finery, was a great study. For Magnus was on tiptoe, and 
put in all the flourishes the law allowed. Only at 
the sound of the first drum did his exalted state come 
down. 

“ That drummer ought to be hung at the sallyport, 55 he 
said. 

“ But it is all so pretty, 55 said Rose. “ And so in keep- 
ing, Magnus. 55 

“ You do not know drums, 55 he said. “ That call means : 

‘ Charlemagne Kindred — and every other cadet out for a 
breath of fresh air — walk straight off to barracks. 5 55 

“Does it? 55 said Violet. “Then why don’t you go? 
We’ll walk over with you. 55 

“ Sit still ! Why don’t I go ? 55 and Mr. Kindred gave 
fresh utterance to his disdain. 

“ Now it sounds again,” said Rose. “ Is that a second 
invitation to ‘ walk 5 ? 55 

“ No; this one says : ‘ Magnus Kindred — and every other 
man who is enjoying himself — run ! 5 ” 

“ 0, then, do go, dear ! 55 pleaded the girls. “ 0, Mag- 
nus ! do not be late. See, those men are running.” 

But Magnus gave no sort of heed. He bowed to Miss 


GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 379 

Newcomb, looked after the speeding grey coats, and re- 
marked calmly : 

“Let them run. They want practice.” But when the 
next call sounded, Magnus turned. 

“ That spells,” he said : “ c Magnus Kindred — and every 
other poor fellow who doesn’t mean to Be skinned — 
scamper ! ’ ” and scamper he certainly did. The two girls 
watched him, breathless and anxious. 

“ There are three ladies right in his way,” said Violet. 
“ Oh, I hope they’ll not stop him ! ” 

But no, indeed ; a cadet dodging a “ late ” is not so easily 
stopped. Magnus knew them, took off his cap to them, 
spoke some words of greeting, but never stayed his pace; 
and his sisters had the pleasure of seeing him dive in 
through the sallyport before the drum said another word. 
Then they looked at each other and laughed. 

“ Such a boy ! ” said Rose. 

“ But how he did run,” said Violet. Then they both were 
silent with intensest interest. For the old grey barracks 
presently took to itself the well-known likeness of a beehive 
in swarming time, and ignorant eyes could as little tell 
what was going on as the uninitiated can guess that the 
bees are searching for their queen. Hanging round the 
doorways, clustering in front, with new forms all the time 
pouring out, until, like the tin pan of the farmer’s wife, 
that mysterious drum brought order, and they settled 
down in a long, long line upon the sidewalk. 

Just at this point, with all the dangerous element in 
safe bonds, Mrs. Ironwood left her girls for a while and 
went for a chat on one of the hospitable porches behind 
her. Several other people also moved away, for a walk or a 
talk ; and the vacant seats were taken by a handful of girls 
just come on the ground, and who, noting the new faces, 
were now in the keen pursuit of knowledge. 

At first, however, they seemed more eager to give it, talk- 


380 GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 

ing fast and loud, and sometimes across the two young 
strangers who were watching every movement on the plain. 
But when the march down from barracks ended in another 
motionless line upon the green, and each girl began to 
pick out her friends and favourites, despite the confusing 
chin-straps, then it was impossible not to listen. 

“Look at Mr. True,” said one; “he’s a mere mathe- 
matical line.” 

“ He’d be adorable, if he wasn’t such a poke,” said an- 
other. 

“ I’d give more to see that man brought to terms ! ” 

“ What terms ? ” 

“ Unconditional surrender. Down on his knees.” 

“Mr. Randolph is just behind him,” said the first. 
“ And Mr. Crane is fourth from the end in B Company.” 

“ Which is Mr. Kindred ? ” said Rose, turning to her. 

“ Second man with the cross-belt. Do you know him ? ” 
said the young lady, much surprised. 

“ I have met him several times.” 

“ Well, anybody who knows Magnus Kindred after meet- 
ing him ‘several times,’ may go up head,” said Miss 
Saucy. 

“ Is he a poke, too ? ” asked Violet, with a grave face. 

“ No, he’s too wicked for that,” said Miss Cray. 

“Wicked?” said little Miss Wren. “Why, he’s one in 
discipline all the time.” 

“ Well, he’d better be two, and have a few grains of civ- 
ility,” said Miss Cray. “ Absolutely he left me all stand- 
ing in the middle of the plain yesterday, just because that 
ridiculous drum chose to beat ! ” 

“ But that was a very good *way to be left,” said Rose 
merrily. “ Perhaps if you had been all falling, he would 
have stayed.” 

“ Fine idea to work up ! ” said another girl, laughing, 
but Miss Cray tossed her head. 


GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 381 

“ Nobody cared, either way,” she said. “How do you 
know what c perhaps ’ he would have done ? ” 

“Why, we are both his sisters,” said Violet. And for 
once in her life Miss Cray was taken aback. 

“Fancy it!” she said. “Where are you staying?” 

“At the hotel.” 

“ We are at Cranston’s. Who is your chaperon ? ” 

“ Mrs. Ironwood.” 

Which was better care than Miss Cray herself could 
boast, and so the force of circumstances dealt another blow. 

“Well, don’t serve me out too large a slice of humble 
pie,” she said. “Fm awfully fond of Mr. Kindred, my- 
self. The trouble is, he’s not so awfully fond of me. And 
wounded hearts, you know ! ” 

“ If Mr. McLean were here, he’d say : c Steady ! ’ ” re- 
marked Miss Wren. “ Do you know Mr. McLean, too ? ” 
she said, turning to Violet. 

“Yes.” 

“Met him e several times’?” 

“Yes.” 

“ But you must come from the West ? ” 

“ There are quite a number of people out there,” said 
Violet. 

“ And one can visit, even on a prairie,” said Miss Cray 
politely. “ But it seems so odd.” 

Perhaps for a freer discussion of the oddity of things, 
that party moved away, and Mrs. Ironwood came back to 
her charge. But social duties still claimed her to such a 
degree that she hardly looked at the review, and not at all 
at the girls, for a good while. Then in some moment of 
silence, a soft, long-drawn breath made her turn her head. 

The cadets were just passing, double-timing round the 
square, and the good lady saw that her two girls had hold 
of hands, and that the eyes of both were full. What about ? 
Only for one particular dress coat with a white cross-belt. 


382 GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 

one particular pair of shoes that darted past; the owner 
whereof was so far from feeling himself a hero that he was 
just pronouncing under breath the whole review a mean 
contrivance to keep men out in the sun. Ah, young 
brothers! have you any faint vision of what your sisters 
see in you? 

“ Pull up your wraps, girls,” said Mrs. Congressman. 
“ It turns cool here, the minute the sun drops behind the 
hill. And I suppose wild horses wouldn’t get you away 
before parade. Well, they’ll have dealings with that man.” 

The end of the battalion was just passing, one single 
cadet officer bringing up the rear ; and this man’s sash had 
come untied. And as he darted on, one long red streamer 
trailed gracefully behind him; too heavy to float, unless 
with more wind astir. 

The girls were in fits of merriment; only our two girls 
looked grave. 

“ J ust think ! ” whispered Rose ; “ it might have been 
Magnus.” 

“ But why doesn’t he stop and tie it up ? ” said Violet. 

“ Stop and tie it up ? ” said Mrs. Congressman, who 
caught the words. “ Why, if his head was off, he couldn’t 
stop to put it on. Not in a review.” 

Between review and parade there was a charming bit of 
free time when Magnus came down to see his sisters. Miss 
Cray and her party took for granted he was coming also to 
see them, and there was some bridling and handling of 
sugar-plum boxes. And it was quite a shock, when Mag- 
nus, after bowing to them, turned away, and found himself 
a seat between “ those two Western girls,” whom he could 
see any time. 

Sweet brief minutes; I wonder if unlimited free hours 
can ever have the subtle charm that used to hang over the 
now-and-then release from quarters? 

Mr. Starr came up to claim acquaintance, and presently 


GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 383 

coaxed Rose away to introduce her to the sidewalk, as he 
said; Cadet-Captain Trueman appeared, preferring the 
same claim, though of so much later date. And Miss Cray 
looked on. 

As for my two girls, they were more than content ; Violet 
finding the grave, dark-browed Mr. True a very interest- 
ing person indeed ; and Rose so taken up with Mr. Starr’s 
sallies of fun and comment, that she missed all the admir- 
ing glances bestowed upon her own sweet eyes and laughing 
mouth. The first drum came all too soon. 

Starr went on to just the point where they had turned 
before, came slowly back and led Rose to her seat; then 
standing before her and going on with his talk. And Miss 
Cray listened. 

“ Mr. Trueman,” she said presently, putting in her word, 
“ we had a wager about you last night.” 

“ About me? That certainly speaks you all ladies of 
much leisure.” 

“Now, don’t begin to preach,” said Miss Freak. “Be 
good for once, and tell us.” 

“ And what, if you please ? ” 

“ The point was this,” said Miss Saucy. “ Kate said 
that before you will go down on your knees to a woman, you 
must have a cushion a mile high. The rest of us thought 
that perhaps a yard might do.” 

“ Pardon me ! ” said Mr. Trueman, with some energy ; 
“ if ever I kneel to a woman, I shall want no cushion ! ” 

And the tall cadet captain bowed gravely to Violet, 
touched his cap to the others, and walked away. 

A quick clearance of grey coats from about the seats fol- 
lowed. Over by the innocent-looking reveille gun stood 
two soldiers in blue, at the foot of the flagstaff were two 
more. The flag showed off its beauties, lifting, falling, 
floating away in circling folds upon the fitful air; then 
drooping, a mere line of colour against the staff. Then 


384 GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 

came a series of wild yells from the front of barracks, an- 
swering the roll call, and then parade. 

In spite of the dignitaries who generally “ assist ” at a 
review, adding all that position or plumage can give, they 
never get off anything at West Point that is quite so good 
as an old-time dress parade. I use my adjective wittingly, 
for — no disrespect to the new tactics, they hurt the effect. 
To-night everything was perfect, even the music. The 
band struck up “ Money Musk,” or some other time- 
honoured quick-step, known in those happy days before 
“ Boulanger ” was heard of ; the grey files came down the 
green in absolute order, and drew up in a long, unbroken, 
glancing line, before the seats. 

The hills across the river were in a glory of sunshine, the 
higher heads that sentinel the north entrance to the High- 
lands showed sunlight and shadow, too. The river went 
silently along, you could just hear the paddles of the Mary 
Powell, as she speeded round Gee’s Point on her northward 
course. All this, while the adjutant dressed the line, and 
brought it to parade rest. 

“ Sound off!” 

It matters little what they played then, for as the drum 
major raised his baton and struck his attitude, and the 
throng of bandsmen went nimbly after him, our two West- 
ern girls were absolutely and wholly bewitched. To see the 
black plumes slanting off as one before the breeze, with the 
stir of a red sash here and there, and the glinting of breast- 
plates and bayonets and bell buttons in that long moveless 
line. Then to behold the band of musicians getting 
tangled up in a maze at the turn, but coming out all right, 
and playing for dear life through it all, — they were so 
wrapped and lost, no wonder the gun made them jump. 

Then the wonder of the manual, to unwonted eyes; the 
comical different voices in which the sergeants reported, 
with hand on heart (supposedly), and the amused guesses 


GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 385 

as to how in Company D there should be two privates 
absent and unaccounted for. Even the jumble of the 
orders was delightful. 

“ Headquarters Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., 
May 10, 18 — ” so much was generally plain. As also 
“ Special Order. No. forty three-e-e!” But whether it 
gave Cadet Nameless leave of absence for two weeks, or 
said he was to be shot in two days, only the nature of the 
case made clear. To their ears, it might as well have been 
the one as the other. 

The reading ends, the adjutant tucks the folded paper 
into the breast of his dress coat, comes neatly round on one 
heel, and waves his sword to the officer in charge. 

“ Sir, the orders are published.” 

“ Dismiss the parade, sir ! ” 

Another skilful pirouette, and the adjutant faces the 
line and sheathes his sword. 

“ Parade dismissed ! ” 

The swords of all the cadet officers rattle down into the 
scabbard, the adjutant steps loftily back to his old place 
by the line. 

“ Forward ! Guide centre ! March ! ” 

And with another gay burst of music, the cadet officers 
come forward, salute the officer in charge, and disperse (in 
these days draw up behind him); the long, grey line breaks 
into companies, the music changes its measure, and away 
they all go to barracks, to the sweet strains of “ Pop Goes 
the Weasel ! ” Every right arm swings just so, every black 
shoe sole displays its regulation state, in most regulation 
order. But how many furtive blessings brushed the head of 
Cadet Kindred as he went by, that obtuse young fellow 
never guessed. 

Tea at the hotel, after all this, was prosaic enough, but 
doubtless the most soaring bird comes down to rest, and 
finds the lower lands quite bearable, with further flight 


386 GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 

in prospect. So the two girls relished their bread and but- 
ter and strawberries with no alloy, for was not Magnus 
coming after supper for a walk? Magnus, and perhaps 
two more. 

“ Everything is so unusual,” Rose said ; “ it makes one 
feel quite distinguished. Think of walking Till call to 
quarters ! ” 

“Yes, think of it,” said Mrs. Congressman, carefully 
creaming her black tea. “ Then you’ve been in the cars 
night and day since Monday. You must excuse me, young 
ladies. I know girls are untirable where cadets are con- 
cerned, but I am too old a bird for that sort of chaff, and 
I am going straight to my bed, as soon as I see you off. 
With your brother along, youTl not need me.” 

“ May we sit on the piazza after we come back ? Or must 
we go to bed, too ? ” asked Violet. 

“Sit there? Yes. Must you go to bed ? No. Sit there 
and gaze at the barracks till shutting up time comes, and 
then go upstairs and carry it on from your window. 
You’re not obliged to go to bed at all, while you are at 
West Point. Who’s coming to-night ? ” 

“Magnus, of course, and Mr. Trueman. And Mr. Mc- 
Lean said he would, if he could.” 

“ Three for two girls ; you begin well. There, they are 
coming out, and you can go stand at the fence, and I can 
go to my bed.” 

“ Why should we stand at the fence ? ” 

Mahomet and the mountain,’” said Mrs. Congress- 
man. “Bell buttons cannot come any nearer, without a 
special permit.” 

“But I do not like that,” said Violet, drawing back. 
“ You know you bade us not. It looks as if we were wait- 
ing for somebody.” 

“ Silly girl ! That is just what you are doing : now isn’t 
then. Come, I’ll see you safe to the fence.” 


GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE 387 

So under that broad, protecting shadow the girls went 
down the walk ; shy, and glad, and expectant, and just 
a trifle afraid; for were there not four dark figures com- 
ing rapidly across the plain? It was all so strange and 
entrancing; the straight shadows, the measured step. 

“ Ah, here you are ! ” cried Magnus. “ Good evening, 
Mrs. Ironwood.” 

“ How d’ye do again,” said that lady. “ How d’ye do, 
Mr. Trueman, and Mr. McLean — and, as I’m alive! — Mr. 
Bouche ! I suppose two of you have come for me. I’m so 
broad, you think one wouldn’t hear what the other was say- 
ing, and you could both fool me to your heart’s content.” 

There was a laugh and a protest (very honest, so far as 
the coming for her was concerned), and then the young 
people turned away, and Mrs. Congressman went to her 
much coveted repose. 

“ She fulfils her destiny,” said Mr. Bouche, as he placed 
himself by Rose. “The only possible use of a chaperon 
is to go to sleep.” 


XLIX 

FLIRTATION AND OTHER PLACES 

When feelings were young, and the world was new. 

—Pringle. 

T HERE is no need to describe that walk, nor the 
many that followed it. Anybody who has been a 
girl — or had care of a girl — at West Point, knows 
without telling; though doubtless the walks vary according 
to the girl. But hither and thither, then as now, went 
Peace and War, in endless new combinations. Down among 
the grey rocks and green mosses of Flirtation, where the 
tide flowed by as softly as the minutes, and all the pretty 
whispers sounded true. Or up on the old fort; green 
enough once, but in these days pathetic as well as lovely 
in its helpless decline, and where much history might have 
been talked, and was not. Kosciusko’s garden, Fort 
Clinton, even the Officer’s Row — what tales they might 
tell, and are silent. 

I must do Mrs. Ironwood the justice to say, that she did 
not fulfil her destiny after that night, so far as it involved 
going to sleep when she should be on duty. And she did 
the duty well, as befits long habit. Always accidentally on 
hand; keen-eyed, though taking no notice; interfering 
when she must, in a way that was wholly pleasant — and 
unmanageable. The two girls, so unlearned in the world, 
could not have had a more wisely careful friend. Violet 
never guessed how it was that she was generally free to 
walk with Mr. Trueman, nor why Mr. Clinker always fell 
to the lot of Mrs. Ironwood herself. “ She must be very 
fond of him,” thought the girls. And Magnus was careful, 
388 


FLIRTATION 389 

too, in a way, and would by no means present everybody 
he knew to his two young sisters. 

So within that twofold invisible fence Violet and Rose 
moved joyously on, and had — as they wrote home — “ the 
very loveliest time that girls could.” 

And it became plain to lynx-eyed Mrs. Congressman, 
that Magnus soon ceased to be the only grey figure on the 
horizon. His walks with other girls were borne meekly; 
and the days when he was on guard called forth less lamen- 
tation. In short (in the prettiest sort of way) the cadet 
fever had claimed our two young Westerners. As how 
should it not, when they were in such demand ? Men did 
not stand round them to see “what those girls would do 
next,” the poorest sort of a compliment ; but came for the 
real liking and appreciation of the fair womanliness, of 
which even faulty men have an idea — or an ideal. Then 
fresh common sense is very pleasant when you find it ; and 
if Rose was thought too sensible by some — or too sedate, 
Violet was as full of fun and frolic as any young, un- 
spoiled nature ought to be; so they set each other off. 
But the fun was not pointed with slang, nor did the frolic 
show out in shrieks of laughter, or in familiar ways. It 
never occurred to either of them that it was witty to say 
“ Get out ! ” or ladylike to beg for buttons and buckles. 
Or interesting, to give a kiss to some man who was un- 
mannerly enough to ask it. But nobody dared that of 
them. 

Mrs. Ironwood’s “ sleepy ” eyes saw all these things ; saw 
also, by degrees, some others. She could tell, to a time, 
how often Cadet-Captain Trueman had walked with Violet, 
as also that Violet seemed quite unconscious that he came 
oftener than other men. 

“ Great pity ! ” said Mrs. Ironwood in her heart, waving 
her fan there on the hotel piazza. “ He’s the best fellow 
living — and she’s the girl of girls for him. But she hasn’t 


390 


FLIRTATION 


a sou — and he hasn’t; it would never do. I did try to 
keep Rose in the way — but my ! he’d get round a standing 
army. Study, drills, examination, don’t head him off one 
bit. A fine piece of three weeks’ work ! And in ten days 
more he graduates, and there’s an end.” 

And just at that very time, this is what was going on 
among the casemates at Fort Putnam. 

“ Do you think you could live on a second lieutenant’s 
pay ? ” Trueman was saying. “ It is not much, you know 
— but then at first we should probably be stationed at some 
small one-company post, where it would not be needful to 
make a show.” 

“I have never lived where it was needful, or possible, 
to make a show,” said Violet, with a bit of a laugh at the 
idea of being “ stationed ” anywhere. “ But you know I 
have had no chance to think of anything yet.” 

“Yes, of course,” said Trueman; “it’s all very sudden 
to you. But the first minute I saw you I knew I had met 
my fate, and I have done nothing but think, ever since. 
Thinking out the fairest story that ever came into any 
man’s heart. And I am going so soon. Write home to- 
night, will you, Miss Violet, and get leave to promise ? ” 

And then with the sound of coming footsteps, the two 
drew apart a little, and walked decorously down the hill; 
Trueman screening himself carefully with Violet’s blue 
parasol from the sun without, and she conscious only of 
a strange new sunlight within. 

Rose, meanwhile, was having a different sort of talk 
with Mr. Bouche ; an American, despite his French 
name. 

He was a handsome fellow, stood well up in his class, and 
was proficient in more than West Point learning; but as 
much adrift as any unpiloted boat in all matters of faith, 
and some of practice. Why he sought out Rose Kindred 
(as he had done persistently from the day she came) it 


FLIRTATION 391 

would be hard to tell, unless from that peculiar masculine 
contrariness which, as Mrs. Ironwood phrased it, “ makes 
Arctic men always swear by the South Pole.” 

It was Mr. Bouche’s special delight to get Rose away 
from everyone else, find her a splendid seat in some leafy 
nook, throw himself down on the grass where he must 
needs look up and iso could properly gaze into her face, and 
then draw her into an argument. I do not know that Rose 
was more wedded to her opinions than other women, but she 
knew what she believed, which they do not all. And when 
the point was of importance she could fight, and fight well; 
zeal and love of the truth holding their own fearlessly 
against more polished weapons. Even as did the old 
“ Queen’s Arm ” in the hand of one of her ancestors at 
Concord. 

On this particular afternoon, every place seemed taken. 
Gee’s Point, of course, but also the seat by the river edge, 
and the almpst unscalable rocks, and the grey stones that lie 
about the way to Battery Knox. 

“ Never mind,” Rose said. “ I am not tired. I would 
just as leave walk.” 

“ Tired! You? No,” said Mr. Bouche; “you are the 
most rested creature that ever lived. But I am a lazy fel- 
low, and I want a comfortable place, where you can lec- 
ture me.” 

“Upon your laziness?” 

“ Upon what you will. I need it all round.” 

“ There will not be time for an all-round lecture before 
parade.” 

“Bother parade!” said Mr. Bouche. “Why need you 
remind a fellow of parade, just when he’s happy? Here — 
come this way. Now we can dive through these bushes — 
look out for your dress, Miss Rose ! — and we can sit on the 
rock and be out of the way of all the spoons. And Catkins 
himself couldn’t find us.” 


392 


FLIRTATION 

Laughing at him, guarding her dress, following through 
the tangle like a true fresh-air girl, Rose presently forgot 
everything in the loveliness that was all about. Behind 
them, trees and bushes were both shade and screen; but in 
front there was only rock, river, and hill. The grey ledge 
on which they stood took a sudden dip almost at their feet, 
and went down, down, sheer and smooth, with little to break 
the line till it ended in a low fringe of riverside bushes. 
And the stream itself, curling rapidly round Gee’s Point, 
went in full flow through the broadening channel towards 
Antony’s Nose and the “Race.” One or two sailing ves- 
sels beat up against the breeze; from under the fringe of 
bushes came the measured dip of oars. The east-side hills, 
with their wavy outline, caught the full glory of the sink- 
ing sun. 

“ Oh, how beautiful ! ” Rose cried. 

“ Yes ! ” said Mr. Bouche, who had been eyeing the girl 
much as she studied the landscape; “just what I was 
thinking.” 

“ It is like nothing I ever saw anywhere else,” said Rose. 

“ Nor I,” assented her companion. 

“ You see, I have never been just here before,” said Rose, 
turning at the somewhat peculiar tone of voice. “Have 
you ? ” 

“ I am not sure — (that I have,” said Mr. Bouche, consid- 
ering with himself whether certain sensations in the region 
of his heart could possibly (in a cadet of such wide ex- 
perience) mean something new. “ It rather seems to me 
not. What are you going to lecture me about, Miss Rose ? ” 

“ Nothing.” 

“ Oh, yes, you are ! ” cried Bouche, rousing up. “ That’s 
not fair. It is in the bond that you are to lecture.” 

“ Who signed the bond ? ” 

“ I — for self and partner,” said Bouche audaciously. 

“ ‘ Himself and he,’ ” said Rose, quoting Cowper. 



FLIRTATION 










FLIRTATION 


393 


“ Now, that is truly unkind,” said Mr. Bouche, with an 
injured air; “ and therefore not like you, Miss Rose. And 
people should always speak in character. I am surprised 
at you. Do you believe that I never think of anybody but 
myself ? ” 

“ Oh, I suppose when you are speaking to me, you must 
be thinking of me a little,” said Rose, a faint tinge coming 
into her cheeks as she made the admission. “ Look at that 
eagle flying across the river.” 

“ Let him fly — ” said Bouche. “ You really suppose I 
think of you ‘a little/ then? When it’s week days and 
Sundays, Saturdays and common days. When the reveille 
gun has grown sweet to my ear, because ” 

“ Now hush ! ” Rose interrupted him. “ That is a good 
place to stop. “ Nothing ever yet made the reveille gun 
sound sweet to a cadet.” 

“ Other cadets.” 

“ Well, you are just another cadet,” said Rose. 

Bouche burst into a laugh, in spite of his efforts to look 
tragic. 

“ There,” he said; “ she’s making fun of me. It’s all 
up. I am only c just another cadet.’ One more in her 
train. Only so many additional bell buttons, and a pair 
of chevrons thrown in.” 

“Who is the professor of nonsense here?” Rose de- 
manded. “ I never saw such proficients as you cadets are, 
in all my life. Have you had forty pages to learn ? and are 
you trying them off on me? Very well recited, Mr. 
Bouche.” 

“ It isn’t at all. You are getting off grinds on me the 
whole time, and that’s not fair. I should think conscien- 
tious scruples would hinder you.” 

“ Conscientious scruples ? ” 

“ Yes,” said Bouche. “ The way you throw away oppor- 
tunities tries even my conscience. You see. Miss Rose, 1 


394 


FLIRTATION 

never had folks to stand round me and keep me straight. 
Fve been a Topsy boy, all my life.” 

“ Topsy-turvy ? ” suggested Rose. 

Bouche drew a deep sigh. 

“ There it goes again,” he said ; “ I shall have to take it, 
I suppose. But I guess it’s true. And now, when some- 
body has a chance to set me right, she don’t do it.” 

“ What could she do ? ” Rose asked, seriously now. 

“ For one thing, she could take a long, long walk with 
me on Sunday. Keep me out of mischief the whole after- 
noon.” 

“You mistake, Mr. Bouche,” said Rose, turning her 
clear, grave eyes upon him. “ Getting into mischief one’s 
self, never helps anybody else out.” 

“ How would you get in ? ” Bouche said eagerly. “ I’d 
max it on care of you.” 

“ Ah, yes, I do not doubt. But — I was not brought up 
so,” Rose said, hesitating over her words. “ At home, Sun- 
day is such a special, set-apart, happy day. We never take 
it for common things.” 

“It would be a very special and happy day for me, if 
you would take the walk,” said Bouche. “ Of course you 
would count it ‘ common ’ doings to go with me, any day.” 

“ It is not fair to twist my words,” said Rose, looking 
troubled. 

“ Then if it would be uncommon, you can go. You are 
throwing down opportunities, Miss Rose. I’ll take you to 
some remote, far-wilderness corner, and you shall preach to 
me till the drum beats. I’m as meek as skim-milk on Sun- 
day. Why, if you only tell me to take my cap and go to 
chapel, I shall do it.” 

“ But you have to do that.” 

“You’d better believe I wouldn’t be there else,” said 
Bouche. “ But I’ll listen to you a quarter longer than we 
give the chaplain,” 


FLIRTATION 395 

“ I do not think you will — for I shall not speak, on Sun- 
day,” said Rose. 

“ Not speak ! Turning into tf a sweet, silent Carthusian/ 
and thinking up hard things to say to me on Monday.” 

Rose did not at once answer. 

“ Mr. Bouche,” she said, “ I think you make a great 
mistake about the chapel.” 

“ It’s the biggesWzed mistake to make me go there.” 

“ But if you went willingly, you would forget all about 
being made to go,” said Rose. 

How Bouche laughed ! Rose coloured a little, but stood 
her ground. 

“ I mean,” she said, “ the bonds you strive against are 
the ones that press hard.” 

“ Good beginning,” said, the cadet, controlling himself. 
“ Go on. Miss Rose.” 

“ Well,” she said, “then you need not have laughed at 
me quite so much. But somebody says, there are two ends 
to a sermon.” 

“ Only one here,” said Bouche, “ and that’s at the be- 
ginning.” 

“Two ends,” Rose went on steadily; “the human and 
the Divine, the text and the preacher. If you begin with 
the preacher, one man may not like him, and another one 
may ” 

“ That man hasn’t reported yet,” Bouche interrupted 
her. 

“And it would be just the same,” Rose said, “if an 
angel came and preached to you. Some men would be sure 
to criticise him, and study the length of his wings.” 

“ Wishing he’d use ’em to fly away with ; that would be 
me, every time — unless he wore your bonnet.” 

“So the best speaker would not please you all,” Rose 
concluded. “But if you would begin with the text, you 
could not dispute that authority, nor question that style. 


396 FLIRTATION 

You would not dare to criticise it. And if you were study- 
ing the text all the way through, no sermon could seem 
dull, because it would have such living light upon it, from 
the Lord’s own living words.” 

There was such a light and glow on the girl’s own face, 
that Mr. Bouche gazed at her with evident admiration. 

“ All depends,” he said. “ Give me my particular angel 
for the preacher, and the text may go.” 

“ Mr. Bouche,” said Rose, rising up, “ I am sure I heard 
a drum.” 

“ You can always hear a drum here, any time of day or 
night.” 

“Not that drum; listen!” 

“ Happy drum to be listened to.” 

“ But seriously, we must walk on ; you will be late.” 

“ ‘ One private absent.’ Hard on the Com. But it’s not 
imminent yet, Miss Rose.” 

“ Why, you do not look ! ” said Rose. “ See how the 
shadow lies on the river. Please go! Just run on; never 
mind me.” 

“Never mind you!” said Bouche, taking leisurely steps 
at her side. “ Not if I know it.” 

“ Mr. Bouche, you will be late.” 

“Like enough. The first sergeant of D Company will 
tell it with his hand on his heart, regretfully adding : f ’Tis 
true, ’tis pity; pity ’tis, ’tis true.’ And old Powder Flask 
will jump for joy in his regulation shoes.” 

“What for?” 

“ The chance of skinning me for the ninety-ninth time 
this week.” 

“Well, I’ll not be responsible for his joy,” said Rose. 
“ Good-bye ! ” And as they came to one of the many cross- 
paths that led towards the plain, Rose suddenly turned up 
the ascent, running so lightly and easily that it was almost 
as pretty to see as the regular double-time. Bouche stood 


FLIRTATION 397 

open-eyed for a second, and then came up with her, 
fuming. 

“Now this is atrocious, preposterous, unheard of!” he 
said. “ I don’t care a button for a ‘ late.’ ” 

“ Well, you should,” said Rose, laughing round at him, 
keeping her pace and her breath admirably. “And this 
might turn into a cold absence. You ought to care. Mag- 
nus says discipline counts. There’s a different sort of text 
for you.” 

“ I vow ! ” said Bouche. “ Don’t you give me any of his 
wise sayings, or I’ll punch his head when I get back to 
barracks, the first thing.” 

“ Not the first” said Rose with a gay laugh, as they 
reached the edge of the open, “ Look ! there goes the band. 
Run, Mr. Bouche ! ” 

“ As if I hadn’t been running ! ” said Bouche, much 
aggrieved. “ Miss Rose, I’ll owe you one better for this.” 

And then, run he did. 


L 


FAIRYLAND 

Their shields before their breasts, forth at once they go, 
Their lances in the rest levelled fair and low ; 

Their banners and their crests waving in a row. 

— Frere. 

T HE first week in June at West Point is such an 
old story that I had best not say much about it 
here. The (generally) perfect weather, the 
stirring drills, the crowd of lookers-on, with the sort of jail 
delivery from study hours and usual restrictions. The 
cadets come out and sun themselves like hibernated bees, 
or bears, with an unlimited taste for honey. “ Best ” 
dresses sweep the ground, “ best ” bonnets brave the wind ; 
only the serene blue sky looks down unmoved at the show 
and frolic and madcap doings of the people. It is a little 
older than they. 

The furlough men are wild with joy and expectation; the 
plebs have grown two inches since May. Second classmen 
are sporting imaginary chevrons (the nearest some of them 
will come to it) ; and the almost graduates walk at ease, 
kings in their own right. Bewitching damsels repeat the 
question, “ 0, where do you expect to be stationed ? ” 
But alas, the reply is not always, “ Anywhere — with you ! ” 
That might have been in yearling camp; but things have 
changed ; cadet limits are down ; and Choice opens its eyes 
and waits. 

In fact, there is need of some sober sense just now. For 
with the looming up of Fort Grant or Custer; Barrancas, 
Camp Assiniboine, or San Carlos : comes also the question 
398 


399 


FAIRYLAND 

of comforts and climates. These delicate creatures can 
walk all day and dance all night in West Point air. But 
what will their high heels do at Huaehuaca ? and how will 
their fair cheeks stand the heat at Eagle Pass? Are they 
brave to be left with only soldier attendants when the young 
lieutenant is ordered off on a scout after Indians? Can 
they make bread, where the baker does not come round? 
and keep their sweet patience when some “ ranking” new 
arrival swoops down upon their pretty quarters, and bids 
them move ? Or again, what if the modest pay of a second- 
lieutenant should not comport with twenty-dollar bon- 
nets? 

Such questions go for little, when it’s “a girl I have 
known for fifteen years 99 ; but they press rather hard upon 
last week’s acquaintance. No wonder many a face in the 
class looks thoughtful. And no wonder, either, that there 
are so many last leave-taking walks, for just the fair out- 
lines and the grand old river, near and among which the 
men have won their shoulder-straps. 

Among all the unwonted eyes that ever saw June come 
over West Point, none could get more delight than did 
Cadet Kindred’s two young sisters. The mere shining out 
of the whole post in white trousers was an event. And the 
guns that greeted the Board of Visitors were, to the full, 
as imposing, as the various “ planks ” in that respected 
body. The girls watched every point of the welcoming 
review, and then studied the chosen guests as they trooped 
into the “ big house ” reception. But better than chicken 
salad indoors, was the music discoursed by the band in the 
pretty grounds outside. It may be said, however, that 
Violet did not fail to see Mr. Trueman, in sash and plume, 
go up the steps with the rest of the graduating class, and 
to think for one brief moment that it might be pleasant 
to go there too. 

Only parade that night, but a wonderful walk after sup- 


400 FAIRYLAND 

per; and next day, and every day for ten more, a series of 
varied pleasures. 

The examinations in the library were positively awe-in- 
spiring; such battle plans, such hieroglyphics. There was 
some trembling of heart the first time they saw Magnus 
under fire ; but he so plainly knew what he was about, that 
fear soon passed into rejoicing. And when Mr. Clinker 
was set to read Spanish, and the story (as translated) 
sounded unutterably ridiculous, Mrs. Ironwood declared 
that her two girls behaved better than she did. 

Something of this in the morning ; at night a concert ; in 
the afternoon a drill. Perhaps on the cavalry plain with 
the ear-tearing racket of the Light Battery ; where the guns 
were sometimes pointed at the ladies, and the ladies cried 
out, and stopped their ears, and ran away; and the hills 
sent back the thunder, and the descending sun half glori- 
fied the clouds of dust. Or maybe they went down by the 
river, and' saw Mr. Trueman and a throng of unknown men 
build the pontoon bridge, themselves sitting on the grass 
in a blaze of sunshine, which the north wind softened down. 
With gay dresses on every side, and grey-and-white men 
standing behind them, or down on the grass too. Sugar- 
plums in many hands, the perfume of flirtation in all the 
air ; and certainly their own attendant cavaliers were well 
disposed for both these soft delectations. But if Rose 
looked round, it was generally to put some intelligent ques- 
tion, which Bouche could only answer in kind ; and Violet’s 
bright eyes were too eagerly watching what Mr. True did 
with his boat, to heed what Randolph whispered about 
them. 

How skilfully those huge grey pontoons swung into line; 
how stirring was the sounding tramp of the plank-bearers ; 
how curiously they locked arms going back, and how very 
charming was the walk over that strange bridge when it 
was done. 













































♦ 


























































. 




f 










- I fmM E 




CADET BOAT AND CREW 




FAIRYLAND 401 

Another day came skirmish drill, with the grey files in 
all sorts of varied action ; the men scattered over the plain 
as a sower casts his seed. Speeding down in the hollow, 
dashing up the ridge, disappearing behind the trees, and 
firing straight at the pretty spectators. In those days, the 
short midway rest was all right for visiting; and so, when 
the other men dropped down on the grass, Magnus and 
Mr. Trueman and quite a little crowd came over to the 
seats, cap in hand. Smoky, and dusty, and hot — and 
charming — for a few minutes of lively talk. To the be- 
grimed warriors every girl looked perfectly resplendent, in 
her fresh summer dress. 

Then, as the drill went on, and the privates came down 
on one knee to fire, or crouched down, or lay at length, with 
the cadet officers standing motionless behind them; what 
terribly exposed positions the chevrons seemed to have! 
What a mark for the enemy’s guns was each straight figure, 
casting its motionless shadow across the sunlit grass. Bul- 
lets might whistle over the men on the ground — but for 
these ! It was all too real ; and the young sisters were glad 
when those on the ground sprang up, and leaders and men 
were merged in an equality of danger. 

One night there was the noisy, vivid, weird mortar drill ; 
touched up with talk, flitting changes of place, comments, 
explanations, and fairyland bursts of red fire. What a 
night that was! The roar of the guns, the soft-spoken 
words; the flash-illumined smoke, the dark figures behind 
the “ footlights ” on the battery ; the motley human mass 
which the crimson fire caught in its red glow. 

Less picturesque, but more breathless in interest, was the 
cavalry drill on the plain and the grand charge. 

In happy ignorance that surgeons and their attendants 
were in watchful waiting, the two girls found the whole 
thing just magnificent, and caught no hint of danger, even 
from other people’s outcries. There was one lady in par- 


402 


FAIRYLAND 


ticular, handsome, well-dressed, and knowing everybody, 
whose son was in the drill, and whose fears were many and 
public. In the midst of the most harmless evolutions she 
was, as she phrased it, “ on thorns ” ; and she danced about 
as if it were true. 

Up on a seat to see better ; down again that she might not 
see at all ; with little cries and shrieks and groans of fright 
or expostulation — it was droll enough. Rose thought she 
would watch her when the charge really came, — and forgot 
her as July forgets December. 

There had been a few minutes of seeming quiet, the 
squad all down by the library; but anyone who looked 
keenly could see this man examining his bridle, and that 
one tightening the girth. You could see them looking to 
their stirrups, or rising a little in the saddle to get a better 
seat. Then they began to move forward, slowly at first, 
then quicker, till the word was given: 

“ Charge ! ” and horses and men came tearing along like 
a Kansas cyclone upon the resounding road. 

In some of the quieter moments before the charge, Rose 
and Violet had picked out two or three men they knew, 
noting their horses (they were not all dark then) ; and 
now, even in that dusty whirlwind, the grey and the black 
could be seen and followed. And — -yes, certainly — Mr. 
Trueman’s horse has leaped the Hotel fence, and the 
plucky rider puts him at it again, and comes bounding 
back. And Mr. Clinker’s steed has swerved at the cross- 
road and gone dashing along towards Trophy Point, for 
freedom and Highland Falls. However, he missed in both, 
and everything came out right, and nobody was hurt ; and 
the drill was pronounced in every way first-class. But for 
days after, when Violet shut her eyes, she seemed to see 
the flashing sabres, and hear again the ringing shout ; and 
to watch that particular grey horse as he leaped the hedge. 

Then came graduation; and Violet had the first sight of 


FAIRYLAND 


403 


Mr. Trueman’s diploma, as soon as he could step aside and 
show it. And Magnus w'as made first captain, and Mr. 
Bouche shone forth as adjutant; and even Mr. McLean 
found his arm adorned with three bright bars, to his own 
astonishment. 

“ All owing to Kin,” he confided to the two sisters. “ If 
he hadn’t pinched me black and blue every day since Christ- 
mas, I should be on my way back to Kansas, to hoe potatoes 
for the rest of my life.” 

It may he said, in passing, that Mr. Trueman lingered 
at the post for a few days in “ cits,” and finally departed 
with a permit to show himself in the Western home, and 
plead his own cause there. 

Mrs. Ironwood lingered, too, even longer, to let her 
charge have a taste of the pretty concerts and guard- 
mounting in camp ; and then the girls packed their trunk, 
and saw the hills fade away in a mist that was all in their 
own eyes. 


LI 


THE HOME-STRETCH 

A gold fringe on the purpling hem 
Of hills the river runs, 

As down its long green valley falls 
The last of summer suns. 

Along its tawny gravel bed 
Broad-flowing, swift, and still, 

As if its meadow-levels felt 
The hurry of the hill, 

Noiseless between its banks of green 
From curve to curve it slips ; 

The drowsy maple shadows rest 
Like fingers on its lips. 

—Whittier. 

T O come down from two girls of yonr own to none, 
is a long step; and I think if ever Cadet Charle- 
magne was ready to put the full value on the 
many fair and gay women at the Point, it was just then, 
when his sisters had gone. Not another sight of his own 
to be hoped for till a whole long year should roll away. 
First-class camp though it was, I think he would have liked 
the busy term-time better. 

But he talked with Miss Lane, he walked with Miss New- 
comb ; and did the civil thing to a handful of new visitors ; 
went to picnics, teas, and such like merrymakings; and 
through it all found himself pining for Cherry, and won- 
dering what they were all about at home. In the very 
midst of the frolic, with bright eyes and soft hands on 
every side, the refrain of the old song would keep com- 
ing up : 


404 


405 


THE HOME STRETCH 

“ O this is no' my ain lassie ! 

Fair though the lassie be.” 

Such a mood works differently with different men; with 
Magnus it wrought in a very becoming fashion. For the 
high mark put upon the three girls far away, set the stand- 
ard for his behaviour to those near by. “Help them,” 
Cherry had said. And so, over his ordinary good manners 
and winning ways, there had come that grave air of 
chivalry, that deference to women because they were wo- 
men, which sets off a man’s own manhood as nothing else 
can. His heart was elsewhere, but his best service was 
theirs to command. How and then he ventured a reproof. 

“ You must not do that,” he said one day to Miss Lane; 
receiving an instant “ Thank you ! ” which spoke her good 
stuff. And even when he came between Miss Saucy and 
some lawless escapade with a firm: “You shall not do 
that ! ” the words were so courteous and earnest that the 
girl yielded with : 

“ There, there — I won’t. Hush up ! ” 

It was kind work to do, and the giving pleasure was 
always pleasant ; but for his own delights Magnus fell back 
into his solitary woodside walks, with now and then a long 
pull upon the river. Up and down the shining current; 
fighting the wind, breasting the tide; tossed with mimic 
billows, or shivering a mirror of blue; so he went. Now 
coasting along at oar’s length from the shore, where the 
hills rose up in castellated masses of rock and the cool 
shadow lay deep; then resting on his oars, and gazing 
through the peerless north gateway at the flood of sunset 
over Newburgh Bay. Sometimes showing it all to Cherry, 
“ on their wedding trip ” ; or again, sent back here as Com- 
mandant, with Cherry the fair Frau Commander of the 
Post. And then — 

A faint strain of music broke in upon his dream; the 
oars hung motionless, dripping their bright drops. 


406 THE HOME-STRETCH 

A soldier’s funeral was passing slowly up the winding 
Camptown road; the grave notes of the band coming clear 
and soft across the water ; the flag drooped midway. Mag- 
nus reverently bared his head. Then he sat listening. 

There was so little tide that a dip of the oars now and 
then kept the boat in place ; and Magnus sat there motion- 
less, until the third volley rang out among the echoes, and 
to the usual lively racket the men came marching home. 

“ Yes ! ” he said to himself, as he began to pull down 
•stream again. “ When the time comes for Old Glory to 
wrap me up, let them bring me here and lay me there, to 
sleep among the hills.” 

And with a shake of the head at his own musings, Cadet 
Charlemagne made the boat fairly spin till it reached the 
landing, and dashed into the sallyport with full five minutes 
to spare. 

The Fourth of July that year rose exceedingly hot. 
A misty haze veiled the mountains, the dew lay thick on 
every blade of grass ; the silent black-mouthed guns were 
dripping with moisture. 

Being a holiday, even the reveille gun took an extra nap ; 
and the camp lay in absolute stillness for a half-hour be- 
yond its usual time. Only the sentries paced up and down 
in the heightening glare; and far away in the Logtown 
regions you could hear the sputtering of fire-crackers and 
know that Independence Day was begun. 

Meanwhile, by the same token, a lively ambush was pre- 
paring in the quiet camp — a thing not distinctly set down 
and forbidden in West Point rules, and with what we call 
constructive evidence cadets concern themselves but little. 
And so with happy unconcern, Magnus and Twinkle, and 
pretty much all the first class who were not on duty, ar- 
ranged the frolic. And for once the plebs liked their 
orders. 

TJp came the sun, touching Crownest, gilding Fort Put- 


THE HOME-STRETCH 


407 


nam, peering into every bush and tree ; and from the other 
side up came the band, their white helmets making a wind- 
ing line of light across the plain. They took post at one 
corner of the camp; and then, as the Stars and Stripes 
swung slowly up to the head of the flagstaff, began their 
march and their music, saluting the colours. 

You have all heard how the piper of Hamelin played the 
rats out, where none were seen before ; and something like 
that happened now. The camp was for all useful purposes 
asleep. But as soon as the inspiring notes of “ The Red, 
White, and Blue” broke up the stillness, there came a 
stir. 

At quick step, and to a full-blast medley of national airs, 
the band passed through the camp ; up A Company Street 
and down B Company Street ; and as they went, out poured 
a chance-medley crowd to match. A crowd of plebs, 
wrapped in sheets, in blankets, in every sort of harum- 
scarum costume; with brooms for muskets, and the strict 
orders of upper classmen for regulations. 

With all other cadet eyes peering through tent curtains 
to watch, the crazy throng came after the band in full pro- 
cession. And even when the officer in charge woke up to 
the state of things, these agile boys kept out of the way; 
slipped through between tents to the next Company street, 
and then re-forming and marching on joyously, until, as 
the band came round to its starting point, and “ Yankee 
Doodle ” filled all the air, the queer contingent drew up in 
order before them, solemnly presented arms (alias broom- 
sticks) scattered, dived, and disappeared. And only the 
most sedate and orderly faces could be seen at roll call. 

That was great fun. Better than the Fourth of July 
dinner, Magnus declared. 

The usual festivities graced the morning. The muster, 
and the march across the plain to the old trees before the 
library. The band played, Magnus read the “ Declaration,” 


408 


THE HOME STRETCH 

and Mr. Bouche made a speech which proved him, in theory, 
a model patriot. 

Then the midday salute of forty odd guns thundered 
out among the hills ; returned by them in six times as many 
echoes; and the work of the day was done. Once upon 
a time, when powder was cheap, there used to be a salute 
at sunrise, too, and at sundown. 

Magnus strolled away to one of his haunts by the river, 
and sat himself down to watch the tide come in. It was 
almost full flood; the water creeping silently up, hiding 
every mud-stained rock, floating off the drift from every 
corner. One could see how it picked up its freight of chips 
and sticks and sawdust ; but the current was so strong, the 
water so bright, that the dark streaks hardly counted. In 
fact, Magnus enjoyed the whole process, finding fair images 
for himself. 

“Just so,” he thought, “would the June-tide set in, 
when: 

“ Whatever of life has ebbed away 
Comes flooding back, with a ripply cheer, 

Into every green inlet, and creek, and bay.* 

Bearing away then, of course, to parts unknown, all the 
disagreeables of life; studies, drills, and regulations. 
Wave motion giving place to Cherry. “ It is so pleasant,” 
said one of these pre-graduates to me, “ to think of never 
again having to do anything I don’t want to do ! ” 

Magnus was so deep in his dreams down there one day 
that a step close by made him start. This was no gauze- 
winged vision, however, but a poor, homesick pleb. In 
the gray, baggy suit of first initiation, with clouded brow 
and an air of general forlornness, he looked as little like 
flood tide as a fellow could do. 

He glanced at the trim first classman down among the 
bushes, went a few steps on, turned, hesitated, and finally 
came up behind Magnus. 


THE HOME-STRETCH 


409 


<( Shall I disturb you, sir ? ” he said deprecatingly. 

“No; come on. Rocks are Government property. 
You’re Mr. Renwick, aren’t you?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

The boy sat himself down at the water’s edge, and looked 
gloomily off. He was a slight fellow, just touching the 
regulation age; fair-skinned, soft-haired, with an unmis- 
takable air of love and petting about him. “ A mother’s 
boy” all over. There were hearts aching for a sight of 
him somewhere, without a doubt. 

Magnus eyed him a while from a first-class standpoint; 
then his look softened. What wretched, desperate hours 
he himself had spent in that very dress among those very 
rocks. And then of a sudden Cadet Kindred fell to won- 
dering what the Lord would say to this poor heart, were he 
there himself in bodily presence? And the reply was in- 
stant : 

“ Be pitiful, be courteous.” 

“You were in the pleb formation on the Fourth?” he 
said abruptly. 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Liked it?” 

“ No, sir. At least I liked it well enough, but I didn’t 
enjoy it.” 

“ Why not?” 

“ Last Fourth was better.” 

“ Oh, was it ! ” said Magnus ironically. “ Did you think 
to bring home-doings in your pocket when you came to 
West Point ? ” 

“ No, sir,” said Renwick, with a sigh. “ I suppose not.” 

“If you had all you wanted at home, why didn’t you 
stay there ? ” 

“ I had not all I wanted,” said the boy, rousing up. “ I 
wanted an education, and we were too poor for me to get 
it anywhere else.” 


410 


THE HOME-STRETCH 

“My case precisely. And to-day yon think home is 
worth all the education that ever was heard of. So have 
I, a thousand times. But it isn’t, for all.” 

“ Did you ever feel so, Mr. Kindred ? ” said the hoy, 
changing his seat for one a little nearer. " Everybody 
says you’ve had a clear run of luck, straight through.” 

“ Stuff ! ” Magnus answered him. " Are you a Chris- 
tian, Mr. Renwick ? ” 

" I hope so, sir.” 

" Hope so ! Well, are you an American ? ” 

“ Why, of course I am.” 

“ How do you know? You may be a Chinese.” 

" Well, I know — whether I can tell how or not,” said 
the boy. 

" Certain sure where you belong in this world, and not 
sure at all where you belong in the next. Unsound busi- 
ness, Mr. Renwick.” 

Renwick looked at him. 

" You are a queer man ! ” he said. 

" My one distinction. Found I couldn’t lead off in any- 
thing else, here. What are you going to be ? ” 

" A success — if I can, sir.” 

" Well, the only way to success is, to succeed.” 

" I know as much as that myself, sir.” 

"Practise it then. You might as well try to take that 
hill at one jump, as think to be a success in January and 
June, and a failure all the rest of the time. Unless you’re 
a fine mixture of laziness and mathematics. I am not 
myself.” 

"Very little mathematics about me,” said Renwick; 
" and they speak as if that was everything here. So I don’t 
see what I am to do.” 

"Do?” Magnus said. "Why, dig like a prairie dog! 
Things are not so deep down that they can't be routed out. 
And get all the help you can, and take all you can get.” 


THE HOME-STRETCH 411 

“ Do you moan * ponies ’ ? ” said Renwick with a doubt- 
ful look. 

“ I do not mean f ponies ’ ! ” 

“ But they say you are always so busy ? 99 

“ 0 yes, I’m busy enough ; have to look out for my 
own scalp, you know. My advice is always at your service, 
but my time most generally not.” 

“ Then I don’t see what you mean, sir.” 

“Have you a Bible, Mr. Renwick?” 

“ Yes, sir, of course.” 

“ Read it?” 

“ Sometimes.” 

“Well, at one of those rare intervals,” said Magnus, 
“ put three marks in it. A red one here : 

“ ‘ Call upon me here in the day of trouble. I will de- 
liver thee.’ ” 

The boy drew a long sigh. 

“Mother’s verse,” he said. “But that will not bring 
me home.” 

“ Ho, and you don’t want to go. Then a long blue one 
here : 

“ * What time I am afraid I will trust in thee.’ ” 

“ Hold on there,” said Renwick. “ I’m not afraid, sir, 
and I don’t expect to be.” 

“ You will be, quite unexpectedly, some day, when you get 
into' the section room and find you have left your wits in bar- 
racks. But put a broad white mark here, and keep it white : 

“ ‘ Walk in the light.’ 

“ Keep out of all dark ways, Mr. Renwick. You can have 
the Lord’s help every time and all the time, on those terms.” 

Renwick looked at him again. 

“Well, that’s the first time I ever heard of getting 
through West Point so” he said. 

“Tiptop way, you’ll find,” said Magnus. 

“And that is your whole list of directions?” 


412 


THE HOME-STRETCH 

“ Finished up with the first one : dig ! You must work 
like all the beavers between whiles, or you’ll never have 
the face to pray such prayers.” 

“ I heard you were odd,” was Renwick’s comment. 

“ And now* you think the half wasn’t told you. Sound 
doctrine, nevertheless.” 

“ But mathematics ! ” said the boy ; <£ and natural philos- 
ophy ! and Spanish ! ” 

“ Know them all through now, don’t you ? ” said Mag- 
nus ; “ and so want no help.” 

“ No, no, sir ! of course not. But I mean — Mr. Kindred, 
do all the head men get to the top of the class your way ? ” 

“ Probably not.” 

“ Then why do you lay it out for me ? ” 

“ Only sure way I know.” 

“ To push me up head ? ” 

“ To put you somewhere where it’s worth while for a man 
to stand,” said Magnus. “ You might come out head — and 
be a disgrace to the service. You might go down before 
French testifications, get dropped — and live to bless the 
country some other way.” 

“ I thought you meant I should be sure to graduate,” 
said Renwick, disappointed. 

“ There’s but one thing sure.” And rising to his feet. 
Cadet Kindred chanted out a scrap of an old hymn. 

“ Looking off unto Jesus, 

I go not astray : 

My eyes are on him 
And he shows me the way. 

The path may seem dark 
As he leads me along ; 

But following Jesus, 

I cannot go wrong.” 

“ Does it ever seem dark to you, sir? ” Renwick said wist- 
fully. 

“ Lots of times.” 


THE HOME-STRETCH 413 

“ It is so hateful here/’ the boy burst forth ; “ the place, 
and the drills, and the cadets, and everything ! ” 

“ Yes, isn’t it ! ” said Magnus heartily. “ I have felt 
just so. Why, there are days when I should like to shoot 
the cadets, burn down the barracks, pitch all those old 
study books into the blaze, and tie the Tacs within roasting 
distance.” 

The two looked at each other, and then both broke into 
a laugh. 

“ Splendid old place, isn’t it? ” said Mr. Kindred. “ And 
the drills are as good as the rack for stretching a man. 
And the cadets aren’t much worse than the rest of the 
world. You and I are two of them. Come on! Let’s go 
take a look at the flag. That always puts me to rights 
when I turn sour. c Hail, Columbia, happy land! ’ and 
West Point is part of it. 

“ The sweet red, white, and blue, 

The brave red, white and blue, 

Has done so much for me, 

And done so much for you.” 


Lit 

THE BIG RECEPTION 


When shall I come to the top of that same hill? 

You do climb up it now ; look how we labour. 

—Shakespeare. 

A VERY busy six months followed first-class camp ; 

the autumn full of drills and study, the winter of 
L examination, hard work, and the Hundredth 
Night. With the opening spring poured in the usual flood 
of tradesmen and their wares ; company drills began, early 
visitors came, and June was coming. The lower classmen, 
as usual, were on tiptoe with glee and excitement; and, 
also as usual, were the ballasting thoughts in many a first- 
class head. Questions of regiments, of posts, and of girls. 

But for Charlemagne Kindred all that was settled. If 
he were ordered to the North Pole, and stationed on the 
tip end of it, he should still take Cherry. And if he could 
not keep the wind from roughening her soft hair, Lieuten- 
ant Kindred would be a much more incompetent person 
than Cadet Charlemagne thought possible. Cherry was just 
the girl for Arctic regions; she would sketch the icebergs, 
sing to the seals, and teach them Greek. And in the long 
evenings by their driftwood fire, they could plan out where 
to live when he wore three stars on his shoulder, and was 
retired on full pay for special services as yet unknown. A 
little soon for that, to be sure ; but there is no harm in being 
beforehand, even “ quite some,” as they say in New Jersey. 
They could draw plans for the house, and so save on archi- 
tects when the time came. 

Other big questions came up for other men. Should this 
414 


415 


THE BIG RECEPTION 

one assume at once the debt which the dear home people 
shouldered so patiently to send him to West Point? And 
how much can this other save from his slender pay, to help 
educate his young brothers and sisters? It touches one’s 
heart to see the dainty articles of dress that are bought for 
the girls at home, whose life has been chiefly homespun. 

Then what work will they find to do at the strange, far- 
away posts? Work in that other army to which, as boys, 
they were mustered in ? For there are many church mem- 
bers in the corps ; and I doubt if there is one to whom the 
old vows do not come up in mind before graduation. Some- 
times, perhaps, with a never-so-keen perception of what 
Paul meant when he said : “ I have finished my course ; I 
have kept the faith.” Paul could have claimed the lower 
honours too ; learned, skilled, an acute theologian, a match- 
less writer. But no earthly plaudits were in his thoughts ; 
only the Lord’s “ Well done ” ; the crown which those Royal 
hands would give him “ at that day.” 

The spring flew on, tossing off its freight of snowdrops, 
violets, columbine, and apple blossoms. Twenty-three days 
to J une, twenty-two days ; then came more tidings. 

Mr. Erskine was failing, so the mother wrote; failing 
steadily and fast. It was doubtful if Magnus would see 
his friend again ; and the young cadet’s heart went out with 
a great yearning to the lonely girl of whom he would so 
soon be the chief earthly protector. And once again Mag- 
nus gave thanks for that grace which had brought him 
through the fire, and made him fit to take such a charge. 
But none of them could come for graduation. 

“ Of course we cannot leave Cherry,” so Violet wrote ; 
“ one of us is up there all the time. Cherry looks like a 
white wind-flower. 0, Magnus, I wish you were here ! ” 
And Magnus gave a groan and turned to his tally : twenty- 
one days to June. 

But he did what he could. He wrote Cherry a letter 


416 THE BIG RECEPTION 

every day, saying everything he could to beguile Her 
thoughts. He sent the last picture of himself, and the 
class picture, and a photograph of the up-river view. In 
every letter went his marks for the day, with what bits of 
mischief or of news the Post could furnish. He told what 
girls he had walked with, and of his rambles alone; giving 
her much to read and to talk of. With all this he studied 
untiringly, refused invitations, went up in his marks, and 
was often fagged enough when tattoo beat; but less with' 
the work than with excitement and tension. 

He had applied for a regiment not then near San Carlos ; 
but so much depended upon how many men went to Wil- 
lePs Point that he could guess little as to his own placing. 
One thing was sure, he was learning fast. Lessons of pa- 
tience, of self-control, of trust ; so winning true promotion, 
day by day. Finding out also, with new understanding, 
the exceeding helpfulness of prayer; learning to lay down 
cares and questions at the feet of that blessed Lord Jesus 
who “doeth all things well.” Rank and post, life and 
death, could safely be left with Him ! A great peace and 
a great strength were in the face of Magnus Kindred in 
those days. 

If he seemed graver than usual, it was that with every 
chance his thoughts flew away. Or, rather, were some of 
them always in that far-off sick-room. For whoever else 
might be with her, Magnus knew, unerringly, how Cherry's 
heart reached out for him. How, in every hard moment, 
with every new token of the coming sorrow, the longing 
for him leaped up and grew. Sometimes it made him 
almost desperate enough to go, at all risks. 

As a last comfort to himself and to her, Magnus took off 
his class ring and expressed it on, bidding her wear it till 
he came to put another in its place. She would not take 
it last summer, but she must now. And there was no tell- 
ing what that ring was to the girl, and to her father as well, 


THE BIG RECEPTION 417 

making the bond so tangible and real. Cherry studied it 
in her lonely night watches, and Mr. Erskine’s heart gave 
thanks at every gleam of the stone as her hands’ sweet min- 
istry came about him. While far away, Magnus, on his 
part, was verifying and honouring all their trust. 

So came on June, with her rose-trimmed slippers; and 
it seemed that first summer afternoon as if the whole coun- 
tryside poured down upon West Point. Long before four 
o’clock the seats were full, then crowded; the wagon-load 
of campstools vanished as they came ; and soon even stand- 
ing-room was at a premium. And when the Board of Vis- 
itors had reviewed the Corps, and the Corps the Board, 
everybody, who had the right crowded in to the reception, 
while the left-out throng whirled round with one accord, 
and sat staring with all its eyes at the open door and 
solid front of the Superintendent’s quarters. If only X- 
rays had been on hand ! The interest grew to a keen point 
when the first class (all together then, though now they 
go scattering in) passed through the gate, doffed their 
plumed hats, and vanished within the doorway. 

Magnus was claimed by old friends and presented to new, 
had a great grip of Mr. Wayne’s hand, and brought little 
Miss Bee a plate of lobster salad deeply bordered with sun- 
shine. 

I think Cadet Charlemagne had learned a little more 
about girls than he once knew; and the light and colour that 
came into this particular shy face at sight of him, smote 
him with a sense of at least possible past mistakes. She 
had no need bo think so much of his small civilities. And 
Mr. Kindred bowed himself away, and made merry in a 
gauzy circle of colours near by. And then, when Miss Bee 
looked so left out in the cold, Magnus rushed up again, took 
her plate, brought her an ice, and made things worse than 
ever. Manlike, he thought the fast-and-loose plan worked 
to admiration. 


418 


THE BIG RECEPTION 

Now privately, Miss Bee cared nothing for lobster and 
very little for ice ; but it felt so good to be noticed and to 
have something to do, that I think she hardly knew what 
she had. And had not Mr. Kindred said the ice would 
“ refresh ” her? So she ate a little, played with it a little, 
and heard, nolens-volens, a good deal of talk. 

“ Why, here is Mr. Kindred ! ” said one of his Christmas 
friends. “ All on tiptoe for shoulder-straps.” 

“ Mr. Kindred has small occasion to stand on f tiptoe 9 
for anything,” said Miss Lane. “ But what have you done 
with your beautiful class ring? Not lost it?” 

“ Hardly, since I know where it is. Lost things are said 
to keep cool company in the moon.” 

“ What is keeping company with your ring ? ” said Miss 
Saucy. “ Your heart, of course ? ” 

“ Of course.” 

“ Will she be here for the hop ? ” 

“ Since when were hearts feminine? No, I do not think 
‘ she ’ will,” said Magnus. “ Hearts are best at home, hop 
nights.” 

The talk went on, the crowd drifted ; and little Miss Bee 
in her corner held her plate and ate her ice, and tasted 
nothing. Of course, she had seen that the ring was miss- 
ing ; but then no girl had boasted its possession. And men 
took whims. 

What tales dark corners could tell; of hard-pressed 
fights, of struggles, of victory! The band played, the 
throng increased — then began to thin out. Presently 
Magnus came and took the plate from the weary fingers, 
asking if she would have anything more. 

“ No, nothing,” she assured him with a smile. But 
something in the smile and its quiet patience, made him 
dart over to the table and fetch a handful of the gayest bon- 
bons and mottoes, and bestow them in Miss Bee’s own 
hands. A man's blunder, again ! And yet perhaps not. 


419 


THE BIG RECEPTION 

Of course the sweets were not eaten; they were conveyed 
away and stored among Miss Bee’s few chiefest treasures ; 
but I think in time they became a comfort, too; shining 
tokens of what a friend she had had in one of the foremost 
men of the Corps. It could not be helped that this put 
other men at a discount. 

For the ten days that followed no one saw much of Cadet 
Kindred, in any of those between-times that he could call 
his own. West Point outlines had cast their lovely spell 
about him ; and with every chance he was down by the river, 
up among the rocks ; climbing the leafy ways ; saying good- 
bye, and then coming back to say it again. 


LIII 


THE FIRST POST 

A ravelled rainbow overhead 
Lets down to life its varying thread; 

Love’s blue,— joy’s gold,— and fair between 
Hope’s shifting light of emerald green; 

With either side, in deep relief, 

A crimson pain, a violet grief. 

— Mrs. Whitney. 

I NEVER understand how people can chatter all 
through the graduating parade. Standing before 
other people who fain would see, but with their own 
backs to the show; gabbling on about trains and stages, 
weather and wraps, to the utter discomfiture of the quiet 
souls who are straining their ears to catch the “ standing,” 
just then read out by the cadet adjutant ; and finally paus- 
ing long enough to wonder “ Whatever is he talking so long 
about, anyway ? ” 

“ Headquarters Military Academy, West Point, N. Y. 
Special order, No. fifty-nine! ” So much with the knowl- 
edge that comes by iteration, you make out ; but the human 
wall shuts off the rest. Such people should stay at home. 

If you are a stranger and unwarned, you may easily miss 
some special points in the show to-night. You will not 
know that, when the battalion comes marching down to the 
tune of “ The Dashing White Sergeant,” it means that from 
fifty to seventy of its men are on dress parade for the last 
time. And as they come nearer and wheel into line, you 
will hardly notice, that among those orderly grey figures, 
there is every here and there one who carries only side- 
arms, his musket left behind. And when these come out 
420 


421 


THE FIRST POST 

and form a quiet line in front of the rest, you will not 
guess that they are never again to go through the manual 
or be mingled with the other men. Also for this night, 
the Commandant himself steps out upon the ground, in- 
stead of the usual officer in charge. 

The line is dressed, and then — 

“ Parade rest ! ” and then — 

“ Sound off!” 

And with sweet, clear rendering, the band begins to play : 

“ In cottage or palace, 

Wherever I roam, 

Be it ever so humble, 

There’s no place like home. 

Home! Home! 

Sweet, sweet home! ” — 

0 what does it mean, to those men who (except for the 
short furlough) have been four years in exile ! They give 
no sign; motionless as so many statues; the black chin 
straps merging faces, and hiding what may be there. The 
June air stirs the soft edges of the black plumes, floating 
them off as one ; the sunset glitters on buckle and bayonet ; 
the great garrison flag curls and uncurls its mighty folds. 
“ It may be for years and it may be for ever,” before the 
men of that front rank will look upon the scene again. 
They have hated it, sometimes, and longed to get away, 
but now they know how well they love it. What things 
those old hills and they have gone through together ! from 
the forlorn pleb days until now. And even with that 
thought, the band lapses softly into another mood : 

“ Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 

And never brought to mind? ” 

and every heart answers to the pleading of “Auld Lang 
Syne.” 

For these classmates, after to-morrow, will be scattered 
to the four winds. Some, not to meet again till they are 


422 THEFIRSTPOST 

grey-haired men ; never all to stand together, until the day 
when before the King “ in his glory,” “ shall be gathered 
all nations.” Believers or unbelievers, they think of it now. 
They may not speak nor touch each other, nor turn the 
head, but they think. 

It is as well, perhaps, that “ The girl I left behind me ” 
puts in her word just here, and you have to laugh, partly 
because you were so near crying. But Lang Syne and 
Sweet Home have the last saying, as the band comes back 
to its place. 

Parade goes on, and for once everybody is “ present or 
accounted for.” The orders are published, the standing 
read (not always, in these days), and then the graduating 
class come forward, and with dress hats off and held at the 
correct angle, shake hands with the Commandant and have 
a short address from him. And while the little company 
pass down and stand in line before the trees (not that 
either, now) , the old Commandant turns hastily away from 
the show, and seeks his own front door. It is a long ago 
“ Lang Syne ” that he remembers, and far better than these 
youngsters, he knows what all this means. 

But the music begins again, with another change. “ I 
see them on their winding way” fills all the air. The 
lines break up; and buckle and bayonet, sash and plume, 
come gaily past the seats, and then as they pass the wait- 
ing graduates, again the plumed hats come off, while cheers 
ring out in eager greeting from their comrades marching 

by- 

“ I know I shall cry when it comes to that ! ” said a gay 
young first classman to me. And I have no doubt he did. 
But there are no lookers-on in front of them, and the old 
plain tells no tales. 

The next ten or twelve waking hours are little but hurry 
and rush. The big hop on hand for society men : with fare- 
well visits, last ends of packing, and countless bits of red 


423 


THE FIRST POST 

tape to be tied in regulation knots. Then last looks at the 
river, and hands laid lovingly and for the last time upon 
some of the old grey rocks. 

In front of the library a platform is raised, and draped 
with the star-spangled banner, and a canvas canopy 
stretches across from tree to tree. Strong ropes wall in 
the space below, where stand the chairs, rank after rank, 
and as the morning hours run on, sentinels guard the ropes 
against all intruders. The seats, of course, are, first of all, 
for cadets and people of the Post, but just there does the 
dear general public wish to sit, and for whom the chairs 
are placed affects them not at all. So, for an hour or more, 
there is a sort of running fight — a skirmish line — all 
round the lines of rope, and the sentries well-nigh meet 
their match. Demands, complaints, exclamations, are 
loud-voiced and many, and neither orders nor fixed bayonets 
win much respect. 

“ Those are the orders, ma’am.” 

“ Pm not responsible, ma’am.” 

“No, ma’am, no one allowed inside the ropes.” 

“ Sit there ? Those seats are reserved for the mothers, 
ma’am.” 

“ But we are the mothers,” cried one good dame to the 
stony official. And as the guard turned to ward off some 
new intruder, one could but laugh at the adroitness with 
which she slipped in behind his back, to be again ordered 
out. At last come dignitaries in such very full feather 
that the crowd stands back and becomes a trifle more 
modest. The hands on the clock move on, cadets who were 
wandering about with mothers and friends leave them and 
go off to barracks. Men for the platform come leisurely 
along, sure of a good place ; the upper ten for the seats be- 
low. make more speed, seeking the best. Then the super- 
intendent, the adjutant, and all the glittering people in 
train of the Board of Visitors, mount the platform, and 

i 


424 THEFIRSTPOST 

make it a study of sheen and colour. Drums sound in the 
distance, then nearer, and the whole battalion comes march- 
ing down. They halt at the back of the crowd, stack arms, 
and the graduating class file in and take their seats. 

There is a short prayer from the chaplain, “ Hail, Colum- 
bia ! ” from the band, and then the address — or, maybe two. 
From the president of the board generally, followed often 
by words from some high ranking officer, or some notabil- 
ity in civil life. Addresses sometimes wise, sometimes more 
— otherwise — than one could wish; very seldom vivid and 
instinct with fire. The country figures, of course, and 
“ this Institution,” and the flag, with the service, in a mild 
sort of way. All eyes are fixed upon this particular class, 
and the army welcomes it with open arms. And the cadets 
have done well, and the professors have done their best. 
On the whole, the sort of speeches to which you would like 
to apply a match and bring them to either a blaze or to 
ashes. How rarely — Oh, how rarely ! — have these veterans 
in camp or council one word of real cheer, wisdom, and 
fire, for these “ youngsters,” these smooth-faced new 
recruits. 

Perhaps it makes less difference than I think to the 
grave young men waiting there, bare-headed and absorbed ; 
they have been at such high pressure, and have so much 
else to think of. They listen, and applaud, from time to 
time, and generally in the right place. Once in a while 
you may notice that just there the Southern hands are 
silent. 

More music follows, and then the adjutant with his stack 
of diplomas comes to the front and stands behind the 
Superintendent, or whoever is to give them out : in the old 
days, it was often General Sherman. One by one he takes 
the parchment from the adjutant, and the names are called 
off in order of standing. 

“ Harvey Linton!” 


425 


THE FIRST POST 

A tall, dark-haired young fellow rises from the grey 
mass, comes to the foot of the platform, and with a low 
bow takes the credentials for which he has toiled so bravely. 

“ I congratulate you, sir,” says the donor ; “ not so much 
for being at the head as for the hard work which has put 
you there,” — and Linton bows again, and goes back to his 
seat. 

“ Yes, he has done very well — ve — ry well,” so his father 
in the crowd answers friendly words, trying hard to seem 
unconscious that his son has carried off first honours. 

“ Anson Dent ! ” and this time it is a broad shouldered 
Wisconsiner, followed by a Virginian, a fair haired 
Hoosier, and all the rest. But you notice other differences 
among the men. For while some smile and bow gratefully, 
others give the briefest sort of nod, and some none at all. 
Some flush, and some grow pale, and some hands almost 
grab the diploma as if a right had been long withheld. 
And one casts furtive glances towards a certain bewitching 
bonnet in the crowd, as he goes to his seat, and the next 
sends a deeper gaze across the gay lines, seeking a face and 
dress the plainest there, but the best beloved in all the 
world; while many see only the friends a thousand miles 
away. One man unrolls his diploma and studies it with all 
his eyes, his neighbour plays with his, as if it were the 
veriest trifle — a mere bagatelle. 

“ Charlemagne Kindred ! ” 

And I am bound to own that this man went forward in 
a dream. With one swift glance at Mr. Wayne, he did catch 
the loving interest in that face, but the rest of the people 
might as well have been a fog bank. He was feeling so 
much that he seemed not to feel at all, until when they 
broke up, and Twinkle pressed through the crowd, crying : 

“ Where is my mother ! I want my mother ! ” 

And then Magnus could have shaken him, for daring to 
put his own heart-cry in words. 


426 


THE FIRST POST 


Indiscriminate cheering was not the fashion in those 
days. A specially popular man, or one who had done his 
work against special odds, might have some hearty plaudits. 
But generally the applause was kept for “the last man,” 
who by brilliant carelessness or industrious breaking of 
regulations, footed “the immortals.” Of course, they all 
cheered him. Had he not kept someone else from being 
“ last man? ” — even now and then (it is whispered) closing 
up the class end so that no one else could fall through. 
But after all, somebody must be last, so cheer him on., He 
may outrank you yet, in life. 

The scene changes. Everyone rises to the “ Star- 
Spangled Banner,” there is the benediction, the cadets 
march away to the “Left Behind Girl” once more; and 
then girls present, who will not accept the situation, tear 
along to the front of barracks to hear the new orders. 

The companies are drawn up in line, never again to 
stand together there, and the adjutant publishes the orders 
for the last time. 

It is a long reading. Lists of the men who graduate, of 
the men who go on furlough, and of the new cadet officers ; 
and again the friendly chin straps do the part of words, 
and “ conceal thought.” But if you are near enough, and 
know the faces, you can see a gleam in the eyes of the men 
who are to wear chevrons, or gloom on the faces of some 
who are left in ranks, while the furlough men are almost 
dancing. But not even a half-inch stir, anywhere. 

When the reading is done, and they break ranks, then in- 
deed frolic breaks loose, and every sort of thing is on hand. 
Graduates rush to their rooms, clasping a hand here and 
there as they go, to put off the grey once more and forever. 
Furlough men also “scoot” away, eager to come out in 
“cits” for the journey; while the others hug and con- 
gratulate each other in a threefold tangle, sometimes; the 
new officers hurry to put on their chevrons; and (lest the 


427 


THE FIRST POST 

fun should be one-sided) are now and then caught and 
borne away and put under the hydrant by the zealous year- 
lings. 

Meantime the sallyport fills up with girls, matrons, 
friends, old graduates, and people in general. The gay 
overflow pours out into the area of barracks, all waiting to 
see the young lieutenants and the furlough men shine out 
in “cits.” And they are about as different from each 
other, when they come, as they were in the old candidate 
days. One tall man in an extra tall hat, the next neat and 
harmonious down to his small handbag, and this one just 
a trifle loud and mixed. Twos and threes and one alone, 
hardly to he known at first, with their canes and neckties. 
The furlough men shine all over with joy, the young gradu- 
ates have thoughts. So this face grows grave over a hand- 
shake, and this other stalwart fellow breaks down in his 
words of farewell, and leaves them unsaid. 

Mr. Wayne stood there with the rest, watching for Mag- 
nus, and then having a word with him from time to time, 
until that matter-of-fact regulation drum beat the call for 
dinner, and the new cadet officers marched the men away. 

The air is still full of hurry, for most of those who are 
going want to take the down boat, and there are a few last 
calls to pay ; , and some unfinished business with the commis- 
sary or the “ Com.” But one way and another the area is 
cleared, the men slip out of sight, and graduation is over. 
Few words may tell the rest. 

Mr. Erskine had passed away from this earthly life, 
during that very week in June; and it was a very pale and 
grief-stricken girl, much needing him, that Magnus took 
in his arms when he reached home. And later on in the 
summer there was a quiet wedding, with just a few class- 
mates in full-dress uniform to light up the room, and Mr. 
Wayne to join the two hands in a bond which should never 
be broken. 


/ 


y Toy 

428 THE FIRST POST 

And their first post? What does that matter? How- 
ever, it was one with plenty to do, and some things to bear ; 
a good place wherein to shine as the Lord’s true servants, 
and an excellent one from which to look up to Him. 

For the rest, it stood on high ground, with a fine out- 
look, and a fair climate. It was called Fort Content. 


THE END 


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